76 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AORICULTURE. 



ently radically exterminated the insect at this point, so that there is 

 no fear of future spread from this portion of central New York. 



THE ALFALFA WEEVIL. 



Active work a^rainst the alfalfa weevil, which threatens widespread 

 destruction, has been carried on with the help of added funds appro- 

 priated by Congress. More men have been added to the field force, 

 and the insect has been carefully followed through the entire year. 

 Not only has this work been carried on in the laboratory and in the 

 fields adjoining the headquarters, which are at Murray, Utah, but 

 it has been duplicated to a large extent in higher altitudes in order to 

 obtain thorough knowledge of the insect throughout the territory 

 over which it has become distributed. Experimental work with 

 parasitic insects and parasitic fungi has been carried on, and several 

 species of jDarasites have been imported from Europe, which is the 

 original home of this weevil. Field experiments looking toward 

 the combining of alfalfa with other crops, in order to reduce the 

 intensity of the weevil attack, have been carried on in cooperation 

 with the Bureau of Plant Industry, and mechanical field experiments 

 have been made upon a large scale. It seems now that the second 

 and third crops of alfalfa can be grown successfully, even in the 

 presence of the weevil, by adopting measures discovered in the course 

 of this work, but, as the important crop is the first crop, more work 

 remains to be done in the hope of discovering methods of obviating 

 or greatly reducing the attack of the weevil in the early portion of 

 the year. The insect does not seem to have spread as rapidly as was 

 feared, but it is likely to turn up at almost any point where alfalfa 

 is extensively grown. 



WORK AGAINST FOREST INSECTS. 



It is a pleasure to announce, in connection with the work against 

 forest insects, that while a year ago great damage was threat- 

 ened by the southern pine beetle in the States of North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 and Texas, the efforts made by the bureau resulted in such good work 

 on the part of timber owners that the danger mark may be said to 

 have been already passed for the present and that the enormous pros- 

 pective damage has been prevented. In the course of this work there 

 was one notable example of successful control at direct expense. In 

 a 00,000-acre tract, where there was thousands of dollars' worth of 

 beetle-killed timber and every indication that the damage would be 

 even greater this past year, $378 were spent in the cutting and burning 

 of 60 infested patches, with the result that in the spring of 1912 it 

 was found that the spread of the insect had been practically checked 

 and that almost no pine was being attacked. 



