ALL ABOUT ALFALFA. 



half the size of the alfalfa seed. These fall to the 

 ground, where they remain until the next season, when 

 they germinate. The young dodder plant cannot live 

 long in the ground, and unless it finds a host plant, 

 soon dies. Where it is abundant the plants upon which, 

 it feeds assume an unhealthy appearance, and finally die. 

 Dodder can be killed by cutting the hay before the dodder 

 blossoms, or by burning it, or by plowing the crop under 

 and cultivating the land for a year or two in corn, potatoes, 

 or other plants which have stems so large that dodder does 

 not live upon 

 them. The plant 

 itself is an annual, 

 and if is is not 

 allowed to go to 

 seed it will die of 

 its own accord. 

 To keep it from 

 seeding, then, is 

 important, and 

 this can be done FTG- 67- DODI)ER SKED, FLOWER AXD PLANT. 

 by running the mowing machine when the alfalfa is half 

 grown, and allowing the hay to wilt on the ground, or 

 it may be raked off, as desired. 



The workings of this pestiferous parasite are illus- 

 trated in Figure 67, reproduced from the American 

 Agriculturist. From the seed (e) a vine grows and 

 clings to the alfalfa stem (b) by the sucking root (c), 

 through which the dodder thereafter feeds upon the 

 alfalfa sap, the ground roots dying and the vine turning 

 yellow. The slightly purplish flowers (d) are borne in 

 clusters (d). The small dodder seed (e) can be removed 

 by a sieve with twenty meshes to the inch. The vine 

 can be killed by a copperas or sulphate of iron solution. 



Another enemy is the alfalfa worm, which acts 

 much like the army worm in destroying leaf, stem and 



