120 CLOVER CULTURE. 



mowing, however, should be as close as possible, inasmuch as 

 the dodder flowers quite low. Where seed is suspected it 

 should be sifted carefully through a seive, the seed being but 

 half the size of clover. 



Our attention was first called to this parasite by the 

 receipt of a sample from Mr. J. N. Downing, of Hall Town. 

 Missouri, with the statement that it prevailed largely in his 

 district and was introduced in seed shipped in during the 

 previous spring. It has been reported elsewhere in Missouri 

 and Canada. The sample was submitted to Prof. Pammel, 

 of Ames, Iowa, and also to Prof. McBride, of the Iowa State 

 University, from whose replies, published in the Home- 

 stead of October 18, 1889, and from Bulletin No. 8, of the 

 Colorado Experiment Station, the above description has been 

 taken. Subsequently we received a package of dodder on 

 clover from the southern part of Iowa, which, however, on 

 examination by Prof. Bessey, of the Nebraska Experiment 

 Station, was pronounced to be a native dodder, different from 

 the Cuscuta epithymum, and which had adopted the bad 

 habit of living on clover instead of its natural host. Bul- 

 letin No. 8, of the Colorado Experiment Station, above 

 mentioned, reports three species of parasite on alfalfa in 

 that vicinity. These are the Cuscuta epilinum, or the flax 

 dodder, Cuscuta Gronovii, a species abundant in wet, shady 

 places from Canada to the Rocky ^Mountains, through Min- 

 nesota, Iowa and Texas, and also parasitic on the great 

 rag weed (Ambrosia trifida,) and other members of the sun- 

 flower family. This is the most common of all the species 

 and is frequently found in Iowa, especially about Ames and 

 Des Moines. Fortunately for the West, although the 

 various dodders are generally distributed, they do not usually 

 attack cultivated plants. We have mentioned most of the 

 spots certainly known to be infested with clover dodder. 

 We have dealt with the subject thus fully, in order to warn 

 our readers of the danger of trifling with it wherever it 

 appears, as nothing but the most prompt and vigorous 

 measures will be efficient in dealing with this parasite. 



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