REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 203 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



cut once and gave a yield of one ajid a half tons per acre. In 1905 six acres were cut 

 and gave a yield of about one ton of dodder stems and alfalfa per acre. The re- 

 mainder of the field was not considered worth harvesting, as the dodder had taken 

 entire possession of the crop.' 



The question has been raised as to whether alfalfa badly infested with dodder 

 is fit for food for various kinds of stock. Hearing that Mr. T. Murray Bell, of Otter- 

 burn Farm, St. Mary^s, had some dodder on his alfalfa, which he had fed to sheep, 

 I asked him to let me know the particulars, which are given in the following letter : — 



' St. Mary's, Aug. 13. — I have your favour of the 8th, and as requested I send 

 you three samples of alfalfa with and without the parasite. You ask if this crop is 

 grown for seed here, or merely for hay. In reply, as far as I loiow, it is merely grown 

 for hay and is cut twice in the season. Yes, we fed our parasitized clover to our 

 breeding ewes all last winter without any evil results, two-thirds of H;hem having 

 twins and an abundance of milk with littte or no other feed. We intend doing the 

 same thing this winter. The above mentioned hay was fully mixed with dodder when 

 housed; and, when all was fed up this spring, there was nVD dodder to be seen any- 

 where. I believe that, if a field infested with dodder were depastured with sheep after 

 the hay was taken off, little or no dodder woidd be left afterwards, provided of course 

 that it had not already seeded itself.' 



In August last I had an opportunity of discussing with Mr. Miller the occur- 

 rences of dodder at St. Mary's, and he obtained for me some heavily infested samples 

 of alfalfa, and also, from the same field and grown on the same soil and under similar 

 conditions, a sample of normal alfalfa which had not been attacked by dodder. These 

 were submitted to Mr. F. T. Shutt, the Chief Chemist of the Dominion Experimental 

 Farms, who has kindly furnished me with the following report, from which it will be 

 seen that, as far as the chemical food constituents are concerned, the dodder-infested 

 hay is of about equal value with the unattacked hay; but it must not be forgotten that 

 the crop per acre is very much less, and above all, that the plants in an infested field 

 are destroyed. This analysis is of value in showing that, when hay is found to be 

 infested, there is no need to follow the general course and bum it, unless it is only 

 occurring in very small patches through a crop. 



ALFALFA AFFECTED WITH DODDER. 



We received from Mr. H. H. MiUer, O.A.C., Guelph, on August 16, three sam- 

 ples of alfalfa, as follows. — No. 1 free from dodder. No. 2 slightly affected with dod- 

 der and No. 3 very badly damaged, indeed, practically destroyed, with dodder. All 

 the samples were in good condition. 



At the suggestion of Dr. Fletcher, the Botanist, we submitted to analysis Nos. 1 

 and 3, with the object of ascertaining how far the feeding value of the alfalfa, as re- 

 vealed by chemical analysis, might be afFected by this parasite. In the following table 

 the composition of the alfalfa is given, the results being presented as calculated both 

 on the fresh and water-free material : — 



Analysis. 



Fresh material — 



Moisture 



Protein 



Fat or oil 



Carbo-hydrates 10 



Fibre 



Ash 



100 -00 100 -00 



