14 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON ALFALFA WEEVIL. 



have been impracticable for the bureau to have provided. It may 

 be stated, then, that from April 1 to September 1, 1910, the coopera- 

 tive work was largely under the direction of Prof. E. G. Titus of 

 the experiment station. From September, 1910, to April, 1911, it 

 was mostly carried on personally by Mr. C. N. Ainslie. During the 

 spring and summer of 1911 the investigation was carried on under 

 the general direction of those connected with the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology. Outside of the work on parasites, which has been carried 

 on wholly by the bureau, it is not possible distinctly to indicate just 

 what part of the cooperation was carried on by either the bureau or 

 the experiment station. This combination has been for the purpose 

 of accomplishing the greatest amount of good, and there has been no 

 inflexible line separating the work of the two cooperative bodies. As 

 a matter of fact, the results obtained could not have been secured 

 under any other arrangement or with less unselfish feeling than has 

 existed among those engaged in the investigation. 



COOPERATION WITH OTHER BUREAUS OF THE UNITED STATES 

 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Observations made by Mr. W. F. Fiske in the vicinity of Naples, 



Italy, during the spring of 1910 appeared to indicate a possible 



preference on the part of the alfalfa weevil for certain varieties of 



alfalfa. Those varieties, notably, having a slender stem appeared 



to be less freely attacked as compared with those varieties having 



more robust stems. It was with the view of perhaps being able to 



find a variety of alfalfa more or less objectionable to the alfalfa weevil 



that a cooperative experiment was taken up with the Bureau of 



Plant Industry. 



Variety Experiment. 



The Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, therefore, detailed Mr. 

 Roland McKee, of the Office of Forage Crop Investigations, to super- 

 intend the seeding of a number of varieties of alfalfa (Medicago 

 sativa) and the following closely related species : Medicago falcatalj., 

 M. rutJienica (L.) Trautv., M. lupulina L., M. ciliaris (L.) All., M. 

 echinus Lam., M. hispida nigra (Willd.) Burnet, M. hispida confinis 

 (Koch) Burnet, M. hispida terebellum (Willd.) Urban, M. muricata 

 (L.) All., M. orbicularis (L.) All., and M. scutellata (L.) Mill. The 

 tests of these varieties are being conducted on a farm in the vicinity 

 of Salt Lake City, Utah. 



Such observations as it has been possible to make upon the young 

 plants involved in this experiment will be found recorded under food 

 plants. It will of course be understood that the most valuable and 

 decisive information bearing upon the relative extent of attack in 

 these different varieties of alfalfa can not be observed until the spring 

 of 1912. Therefore the information now given must be regarded as 

 only initiative. 



