8o ALIfALFA 



aside. It is frequently supposed that all grasshoppers 

 withdraw to the roadways and places free from trash 

 to deposit their eggs. It is not so with this species, 

 since they lay their eggs right in the alfalfa field, and 

 lot infrequently dig the hole right down through the 

 roots of a bunch of grass. 



' ' A study of the alfalfa plant itself became necessary 

 before further procedure. It was found that it secured 

 its water-supply through roots extending some twelve 

 to fourteen feet beneath the surface, and that the 

 crown could be split in several parts and yet the life 

 of the plant go on unimpaired. In the spring of 1898 

 it was recommended, therefore, to the farmers inter- 

 ested, that they disk their alfalfa meadows as early in 

 the spring as the ground became tillable after the 

 frost, thus breaking up these egg-pods and exposing 

 them to be destroyed by birds, other insedls, and cli- 

 matic influences. This disking many of the farmers 

 feared would destroy the alfalfa itself. One hundred 

 and sixty acres of alfalfa which had been sown two 

 years previously on sod were given for a test. The 

 disk-harrow was run over it in March, and the ground 

 was cross-harrowed with a slant-tooth leveling-harrow. 

 When the work was done the field presented much the 

 appearance of a wheat-field ready for the seed. 



"On the ist of July, 1898, with tent and full 

 laboratory equipments, the writer established a field- 

 station near this experimental quarter-section in 

 order to study the efiFedls of disking upon this alfalfa, 

 and also to observe further the habits of the grasshop- 

 per. While suitable quarters could have been secured 

 at farmhouses, it was found more pradlicable to live right 

 in the meadow, since certain observations upon the 



