177 



3. Combating the Worms. Our troubles with weeds were 

 considered rather jyerious, but the presence of the cut worms made 

 them even greater. The laying- of bait as described above under 

 "Insect Pests" was at first found to be rather disappointing in its 

 results ; in fact, the outlook for success was so far from favorable 

 that failure was already contemplated. However, the strong 

 "never-say-die'' spirit of Prof. Krauss, our agronomist, though 

 beginning to totter, could not quite be shaken down. He faced 

 the enemy with grim determination and finally won out after a 

 long, hard fight. 



The effectiveness of the bait lasted for several days in spite of 

 light nightly rains. The Paris green mixture was a little better 

 than the white arsenic, but from the standpoint of cost the latter 

 was found to be preferable to the former. 



As already mentioned, irrigation was found to be very helpful 

 in drowning out the worms, and it seems that the most effective 

 method of fighting these worms would be to till the soil lightly 

 to loosen it up, irrigate thoroughly and heavily for a few hours 

 and then lay out poisoned bait for those which escaped drowning. 

 Since cut worms are active only at night, it is best to spread the 

 bait as late in the afternoon as possible. 



4. Replanting. The work of the cut worms was so destruc- 

 tive that it was found necessary to replant large portions here and 

 there in order to obtain a good uniform stand. All plots were 

 badly infested with cut worms, but it seems that the Arabian va- 

 riety was the most susceptible. 



5. Gj-owth of the Plants. After the cut w^orms were held in 

 check the plants grew very well. The first crop was harvested in 

 the middle of October — seven weeks after planting. The plants 

 were not quite mature and very small yields were, of course, ob- 

 tained, but the prevalence of weeds and cut worms made it neces- 

 sary to harvest early. 



All four varieties have grown very well, but tiie Arabian va- 

 riety has not blossomed and seeded well. The other three varie- 

 ties proved very vigorous and produced an abundance of fodder 

 and also a good deal of seed. 



One plant of the Utah strain untouched by the sickle produced 

 in seven months 308 vigorous stems by actual count and yielded 

 large quantities of seed, which proved to be of good vitality. The 

 College plans to do some breeding work with the progeny of this 

 plant, which weighed more than five pounds on harvesting at the 

 end of eight months. The stems were a little over four feet high, 

 the average height of the whole Utah bed at maturity being three 

 and one-half feet. The Arabian variety averaged but thirty 

 inches. 



That the cut worms are not troublesome after the plants have 

 become well established is shown by another experiment con- 

 ducted from January 11, 1913, to the middle of February. At 



