'42 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA 



Other hand, farmers cannot expect to obtain the best seed 

 unless they are wilHng to pay the price it brings." 



DODDER SEED 



Dodder seeds are somewhat smaller than alfalfa seeds 

 (pp. 45 and 47), but are not separated from them except 

 by careful recleaning; consequently, they are often sown 

 along with the alfalfa seed, especially in that which has 

 been imported. If a field is badly infested, it should be 

 plowed up and devoted to some other crop for a few 

 years. Prof. F. H. Hillman of Nevada (Bui, No. 47) 

 says there are several kinds that infest alfalfa, but two 

 kinds are especially common and destructive in this coun- 

 try. Cuscuta epithymum is the commoner. "The seeds 

 of this (p. 47) are very small, and are almost sure to es- 

 cape detection on casual examination of the samples ; yet, 

 once recognized under the lens, their presence may be 

 easily discovered. They are so much smaller than alfalfa 

 seeds that the use of a sieve of twenty meshes per inch 

 separates them from the latter when only free dodder 

 seeds are present. Not only are various other small weed 

 seeds disposed of in the process, but little if any alfalfa 

 seed worth buying is lost. The few ripened flowers of 

 dodder retaining matured seeds, which sometimes pass 

 the thresher uninjured, may be removed by proper fan- 

 ning. It is safe to say that no purchaser of alfalfa seed 

 can afford to neglect sifting his seed carefully with a 

 twenty-mesh sieve, which is the mesh the writer recom- 

 mends for the separation of this kind of dodder from al- 

 falfa seed. 



