PRELIMINARY REPORT ON ALFALFA WEEVIL. 11 



INVESTIGATIONS BY THE UTAH EXPERIMENT STATION. 



From the time the attention of the Agricultural Experiment Station 

 authorities at Logan, Utah, was called to the pest and its destructive 

 proclivities they began to investigate and experiment with a view of 

 overcoming its ravages. Following the breeding season of 1909, how- 

 ever, the situation became so alarming as to make it clear that the State 

 of Utah could not hope to cope with the pest single-handed. Besides, 

 there was no longer a doubt that it would soon spread to alfalfa 

 fields in other States, thus becoming a matter of interstate concern. 



On August 4, 1909, his excellency William Spry, governor of Utah, 

 appealed to the honorable the Secretary of Agriculture for assistance 

 in controlling the insect and, if possible, preventing its spread into 

 other States. 



It was exceedingly unfortunate that this outbreak of the pest was 

 not made known long before in order that it might have been investi- 

 gated, for at this time it had become too widespread and destructive 

 to be dealt with by any ordinary force of men. Besides, at this time 

 the funds available with which to carry on investigations were 

 wholly inadequate. 



The appropriations made for the Bureau of Entomology for the 

 fiscal year 1910-11 gave a slight increase of funds, $2,000 of which 

 provided for cooperation with the State of Utah in investigation of 

 the alfalfa weevil. None of this sum would, however, become avail- 

 able until July 1, 1910, after the season for the investigation of the 

 insect had largely passed for the year. In view of the seriousness of 

 the situation Mr. C. N. Ainslie was sent to Salt Lake, Utah, to take 

 up cooperative work, April 1, 1910, lack of available funds prohib- 

 iting any further detail for the purpose. 



At this time the entire cooperative force consisted of but two 

 trained men, Mr. Ainslie, of the Bureau of Entomology, and Prof. 

 E. G. Titus, of the Utah Agricultural College and Experiment 

 Station, and Mr. Sadler, a student assistant, also from the experiment 

 station. 



From the fact that the experiment station people had carried out 

 a number of field experiments against the weevil and had other 

 experiments in view, and because of the bureau's limited funds for 

 this work, it was deemed best that Mr. Ainslie devote his principal 

 time to a close study of the insect itself and its habits, leaving the 

 field experiments to be carried on by and under direction of the 

 experiment station. The results and information thus obtained up 

 to July 1, 1910, were embodied in Bulletin No. 110 of the Utah Ex- 

 periment Station, by Mr. Titus, of which the author thereof has given 

 the following synopsis: 



The alfalfa leaf-weevil is a small, oval, brown snout-beetle, about yw °f an inch long, 

 that is attacking alfalfa in Utah. It is not a native species but has come to Utah from 

 Europe. 



