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By Joan Judd Of The State Journal In 1911, there were about 18,000 acres of alfalfa in the state. That was the year after Laurence F. Graber received an undergraduate de gree in agronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Today, Wisconsin is the largest producer of alfalfa in the nation. About 3 million acres of alfalfa are planted annually on a third of the state's total cropland. Farmers everywhere use it as a high protein feed for livestock. This increase in production here and elsewhere across the country is largely due to Graber who promoted the crop since he was a young laboratory assis tant at the UW earning $500 a year. Graber is known as ‘Mister Alfalfa. Published book At 89 he had recently had his own 521-page autobiography by that title published ($8.40, including postage, GRAMAR Distributors, P.O. Box 4286, Madison, Wis.). He currently spends his days promoting it amid the clutter of the dining room table that doubles as a desk in his home at 1138 Waban Hill. Graber retired from a full professor ship at the University in 1957. He has spent the last 10 years writing the book, and has lived alone with the help of a housekeeper since his wife’s death in 1952. “I'm enjoying my retirement im mensely,’’ he says. “‘It's been a won derful period in my life. ” For his age, Graber has a remarkable memory. He instanteously recalls dates, names and places, is a sociable person who chuckles often over events in the past. Graber was born in 1887 on a farm near Mineral Point. He was one of seven children; only he and his 83-year-old brother, Ernest, survive. Ernest still owns the family farm and visits here often now that his brother no longer drives. ‘Last of Mohicans’ ‘We're the last of the Mohicans,'’ Graber says. He began his education in a one-room schoolhouse. In 1901, when he was 14, his folks moved to town. “It was the first time I'd ever turned electric lights on and off; it was the first time I'd ever seen an indoor toilet,’ he recalls. He graduated from Mineral Point High School in 1906. His father didn’t want him to attend the University but, “I said I wanted to make something out of myself and I didn’t think I could do it his way,” Graber told him. That summer he made $150 which he put toward his schooling hauling ore from the Hazel Patch Mine with his father’s team of horses. “‘Great salary then,” Graber said. In 1906, there were about 5,000 students at the UW, “twice as many people as there were in Mineral Point and I was as green as grass, ’ Graber said. He learned ‘how to get along with the nitty gritty of college life, ’ majored in civil engineering his freshman year but “soon found I was in the wrong pew and switched to agriculture. He dropped out of school for a semester to help his father raise some cattle. Word got around Mineral Point that Graber flunked out because of his “carousing and drinking.’ “That made me damn mad, ’ Graber said. “I decided right then and there that I would go back to the University and finish with my class of 1910, which I did,’ carrying 21 and 22 credits a semester. Then he worked part-time for Prof. R. A. Moore in the agronomy department while taking courses toward a master’s degree, which he received in 1912. Graber said Moore gave him ‘‘an as signment. ' ‘‘He said, ‘I want you to build the alfalfa acreage up to a million or more. I'll give you all the help I can, but you can do it.’ “When I began the alfalfa work in Wisconsin, there were tremendous doubts about it. A number of farmers had tried it and failed. “Timothy and clover mixture was the ordinary carp of that day, but they were having great difficulty to get clover to grow as it used to grow when the land was new, so the hay they got was mostly timothy, low in protein and entirely inadequate as a dairy food.” The problem was, ‘to grow alfalfa, the soil had to be made right; the farmers didn't realize that,” Graber said. So he showed them how. He spoke to the dairymen's as sociations, set up “alfalfa demonstra tion plots,”’ changed cropping systems, increased the use of lime, sent out “millions” of publications on the hay, etc. During World War I, he was ‘‘an emergency food agent’ for Green County. Part of his job was to persuade farmers to increase their milk produc tion in the winter. At that time, alfalfa sold for $40, ‘‘a tremendous price. Graber had it shipped in from Colorado for $28. The word got around that “Graber doesn’t allow any grass to grow under his feet. In 1926, when he was 39, he was mar ried to Frankie A. Trainor, ‘‘a very clever girl.”’ They never had children. In 1930, Graber received a Ph.D. in plant physiology from the University of Chicago. From 1940 to 1949, he was chairman of the UW agronomy depart ment. He was also a popular teacher. During the later years of his career, he promoted a type of alfalfa called Vernel which is resistant to winter kill. He has received many awards and has been active in a number of professional organizations. To what does he attribute his long life? “I took care of myself pretty well, that's about all I can say,”” he says. ‘Mister Alfalfa’ . . Laurence Graber. —State Journal photo by J. D. Patrick
Newspaper Details
Madison Wisconsin State Journal
Madison, Wisconsin, US
Sun, Jan 09, 1977
Page 63
Full Page
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