LUCERNE CULTURE. 5 



of the lucerne, and from the points of contact proceed hollow tuber- 

 cles, or suckers, which suck the juice elaborated by the plant 

 :attacked. The dodder root in the soil then becomes obliterated 

 ,and dies, and the dodder lives from that time forward by its 

 suckers only. Dodder destroys lucerne attacked either by depriv- 

 ing the plants of their nourishment or by strangling them in their 

 folds. It is difficult to guard against dodder on account of the 

 rapidity of its vegetation, the facility with which it passes from 

 plant to plant, the abundance of its seeds., and the double power 

 which it, possesses of germinating either in the earth or in the cap- 

 sule. The seed of dodder resembles that of lucerne, but is consi- 

 derably smaller. Passing lucerne seed through a sieve having a 

 mesh that will allow only the dodder and smaller lucerne seeds to 

 go through, is said to remove dodder seed from lucerne seed. But 

 since the staying behind of even one dodder seed is the means of 

 introducing it into a field of lucerne, where it may spread to a dan- 

 gerous extent before its presence is discovered, we recommend the 

 greatest care in the purchase of lucerne seed, and we would not 

 touch lucerne seed known to have dodder, in it, even if it passed 

 "through ten thousand sieves. Since dodder seed is difficult of 

 detection at any rate to the inexperienced the buyer is entirely 

 in the hands of the grower or seller of the seed. It therefore 

 behoves the intending grower of lucerne to be very careful in the 

 purchase of his seed. If he is wise he will not buy small quanti- 

 ties of seed from shopkeepers who do not deal largely in seeds, and 

 have therefore no ' k seed reputation 11 to lose. Careful watch should 

 be kept over all young fields of lucerne so as to detect the first 

 .appearance of dodder before it has spread, since one single plant will 

 spread over the largest field of lucerne in a very short time if not 

 checked. Dodder in a lucerne field is as pleasant as fire in a hay 

 stack. It is very expensive and troublesome work getting rid of it 

 -effectually. Where dodder has broken out in a field of lucerne the 

 following plans of dealing with it have been reccmmended : Cut 

 away the lucerne on and outside of the dodder, carefully removing and 

 -destroying it ; then spread farm-yard manure six inches thick (when 

 trodden down) over the whole area cleared. It is said this will kill 

 the dodder. We doubt it. All depends on the thoroughness with 

 which the dodder is destroyed wherever visible. Another plan 

 recommended is to saturate the whole of the infected portion of the 

 lucerne field with a solution of sulphate of iron (green copperas), 

 <one pound to the gallon of water. . This, it is said, will kill the 

 dodder and not injure the lucerne. We doubt it. We know an 

 Oudtshoorn grower of lucerne who had dodder break out in his 

 lucerne, and he told us (in spite of the copperas and other 4k sure 

 cure " methods tried by him), it had cost him over a hundred 

 pounds attempting to get rid of the dodder, and he had not then 

 succeeded ! Prevention is better than cure, saith the old proverb, 

 and care exercised in the purchase of lucerne seed is the only 

 method of prevention, and the only safe method. 



