ALFALFA WEEVIL. 15 
acres of rather poor alfalfa handled in this way will support from 
forty to fifty 60-pound hogs, or a corresponding number of other 
animals. 
According to the statements of agricultural experts, this way of 
preventing weevil injury deserves more notice than its usefulness for 
that purpose alone warrants, owing to the fact that, when combined 
with the proper feed of grain, alfalfa pasture furnishes an economical 
method of fattening live stock. Many farms would probably be more 
profitable if their management centered about the pasturing of stock 
on alfalfa, with the growing of enough other crops to provide grain 
and forage throughout the year. This is a matter that each must 
work out for himself to suit local conditions. Wherever the pasturing 
method is practicable it will solve the alfalfa-weevil problem. 
SOILING. 
Cutting the alfalfa green two or three times during the season and 
feeding it gives results similar to those of pasturing. It is especially 
suitable for dairy farms. 
THE DUST MULCH. 
If the weevils have not been killed earlier, they may be destroyed 
after removing the first crop by removing nearly all the vegetation, 
crushing the clods, and filling the cracks so as to expose the entire 
surface of the field to the sun. This is best done by such cultiva- 
tion as will cover the field with a dust mulch, the dust being an 
additional means of killing the weevils which escape the heat of the 
ground. Success depends largely upon doing the work when the 
ground is dry and the weather warm and bright. It should not be 
attempted in cold, cloudy, or wet weather, nor soon after irrigation. 
Dragging the field twice with a brush drag is sufficient if the soil 
is already mellow, but most fields need one or two cultivations 
with the disk or the spring-tooth harrow, and some grassy fields 
with heavy soil can not be put into the best condition to kill weevils 
until after they have been systematically improved for several 
years. A tool which is used instead of the brush drag in Salt Lake 
Valley is built by stretching several layers of heavy woven-wire 
fencing under an ordinary spike-tooth harrow with the teeth laid 
flat, and adding enough weight to pulverize the soil. 
The dust-mulch method has practically no value as cultivation, 
since it must be followed by irrigation, which packs the surface 
dirt and restores it to the condition which obtained before cultiva- 
tion. Its value depends entirely upon the fact that it kills the 
insects and so permits the second crop to grow. It is open to the 
objections that it requires time and the labor of men and_ horses 
during the busiest season of the year and that it stirs up the stones 
on rocky fields. 
