a 
NEw York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. . I61 
This is true of wild aster, beggar ticks, heal all, shepherd’s purse 
and common plantain. Commenting on this discovery the writer 
says: “ Weeds seem well able to take care of themselves, but some 
. of them, at least, do not appear to be well fitted for the ways of 
cultivated plants. If, indeed, it proves to be true upon further 
inquiry that some weed seeds are made incapable of germination 
by being kept dry for three or four months or so, it will be a com- 
forting fact to know, as the danger of fouling land with those 
particular kinds of weeds, by seeds conveyed in grain and garden 
seeds, will be shown to be much less than supposed.” 
The recent rapid extension of alfalfa culture in New York has 
brought to the front the chief weed pest of that crop, namely, 
dodder. The dodder plant consists chiefly of slender, yellow threads 
which twine closely about the alfalfa stems and kill them. It is, 
in reality, a parasite. In most cases dodder gets into the field 
through the use of impure alfalfa seed; and when once established 
it is impossible to eradicate it without at the same time destroying 
the alfalfa. Accordingly, it is of the utmost importance that only 
clean seed be sown. Because of the difficulty in recognizing dodder 
and the absence of any law regulating the sale of alfalfa seed, 
farmers found it very difficult to secure dodder-free seed. 
In this situation the Station helped out by offering to: make free 
tests of samples of alfalfa seed to determine whether they contain 
dodder. Also, a method of removing dodder from alfalfa seed was 
devised. It was shown by experiment that almost any alfalfa 
seed may be made practically free from dodder and safe to sow 
by hand sifting it through a sieve made of 20x20 mesh (No. 34 
wire) wire cloth. With the facilities now at hand the farmer who 
gets dodder in his alfalfa fields has only himself to blame. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Some odds and ends of botanical work which can not be classi- 
fied under any of the preceding headings are the following: 
(1) An account of a tile drain clogged by fungus.” The tile 
drain to a vinegar cellar at Milton, N. Y., became thoroughly 
clogged by a vigorous growth of the fungus Leptomitus lacteus. 
The fungus was readily removed by placing a quantity of copper 
sulphate crystals in the upper end of the drain. 
Circular No: 8 (1907). 
8 Bul. 200:93-98 (1901); same in Rpt. 20:154-157. 
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