lo Sept., 191 2.] The Mischievous Dodder. 535 



THE MISCHIEVOUS DODDEII. 



Perhaps no more striking instance of the necessity for seed cleaning 

 could be advanced than that of clover seed. When it is delivered from the 

 threshing machine, it is no more fit to send out to farmers for sowing than, 

 so much sand or sawdust. To begin with, the seed is mixed up with 

 quantities of foreign matter — earth, small stones, vegetable fibres, frag- 

 ments of wood, and the like. Of course, this miscellaneous collection is- 

 not, in itself, injurious to the prospective crop ; but it serves to " make 

 weight " in a manner entirely derogatory to the interests of the buyer. So 

 all these odds and ends must be carefully sifted from the seed. Nor is- 

 this all. For among the newly-threshed seed, presumably clover, there 

 is certain to be a considerable quantity of seed which will germinate and 

 spring up as weeds of different varieties — all, of course, harmful to the 

 clover crop. Among these injurious seeds is an exceedingly minute one, 

 to detect which the seed merchant must be constantly alert. The plant 

 which springs from it is a veritable blood-sucker, and is known as the 

 dodder. Now, the dodder is not, as some suppose, a fungus, but a true 

 flowering plant, which has acquired the parasite habit. Out of its 

 germinating seed comes a little club-shaped root, which seeks the soil, 

 while its young leafless stem grows upward like a thin thread, slowly 

 moving round in sweeping circles. Should this stem fail to come into con- 

 tact with a clover plant, it eventually falls prone upon the earth, and the 

 embryo dodder soon dies. But let it once touch its prey — the clover — 

 and it grips it with all the tenacity <■ f the well-known bind-weed, to which 

 it is nearly related. Moreover, it not only holds to the clover for support, 

 but actually drives its " sucking roots" right into the substance of the 

 clover's stem, and absorbs the vital sap of its helpless host. 



As soon as the dodder has thus taken hold, its root dies away. There- 

 after it has no connexion with the soil, as in the case of an ordinary plant ; 

 nor does it produce a single leaf. It becomes a rapidly-growing mass of 

 red, hair-like fibres, twisting about its victim the clover, and sending out 

 sucker roots at every possible point of contact. Thousands of tiny white 

 flowers are produced, each destined to mature many seeds ; but the increase 

 of the dodder is an unmixed evil, for it is a hopeless hanger-on in the 

 economy of nature. Fortunately, the seed of dodder does not ripen very 

 freely in England ; but this saving clause fails to apply to seed brought 

 from abroad. Thus it is of the utmost importance that the agriculturist 

 shall be acquainted with the history of his clover seed when he makes a 

 purchase, or else make it a rule only to buy such seeds from firms of recog- 

 nised standing. 



The seed of dodder, as already mentioned, is exceedingly small,, 

 and the aid of an expert microscopical botanist must be invoked b)efore a 

 given quantity of clover seed can be pronounced " free." All big seed 

 merchants are scrupulously particular on this point. After the clover seed 

 has been passed through delicately adjusted machinery, which extracts the 

 seeds of weeds, parasites, and every particle of rubbish in a manner as 

 unerring as instinct, numerous samples are taken from the bulk, and sub- 

 jected to the closest scrutiny through the microscope. If this final test fails 

 to reveal impurity of any kind, then the clover seed is pronounced "clean," 

 and guaranteed as such. — (From the Southland Times.) 



Cleanliness comes next after godliness. Some say that in the dairy it 

 should come before it. 



