250 ARID AGRICULTURE. 



Should the soil become infested with dodder 

 seed, the best method is to plow up the alfalfa 

 and cultivate some large stemmed crop on the 

 ground for two years. The dodder seed germi- 

 nate in the ground and throw up stems w 7 hich 

 twine around the alfalfa, the connection with the 

 ground dying as soon as the plant becomes estab- 

 lished as a parasite. The plant only lives one 

 year and must come from new seed in the ground 

 each season. The thorough spring discing ad- 

 vised for alfalfa, if done at the right time, will 

 effectually rid the field of dodder. The right 

 time is after the dodder seed have germinated 

 and before the little plants have attached them- 

 selves to the alfalfa. 



IRON WEED We do not know that the common name, 



"Iron Weed," is the one always applied to the 

 plant here discussed. This is known to botan- 

 ists as Franseria discolor, and under the new 

 arrangement of names it has been changed to 

 Gaetnana. The weed is a small plant some- 

 what resembling western poverty weed. It is a 

 perennial, living for an indefinite length of time, 

 and is one of the most difficult weeds to kill with 

 which we have to do. It crowds out all culti- 

 vated plants and seems to come up from the roots 

 an indefinite number of times when attempts are 

 made to kill it by cultivation. After it becomes 

 established, it covers the ground with a mat. 

 The plants are five or six inches high and there is 



