coccKR 95 



that the most eiledtive defense against grasshoppers is 

 the disk-harrow. If the alfalfa fields are disked in the 

 late fall or the early spring the grasshopper eggs 

 are destroyed by being disturbed and exposed to the 

 elements and birds. The disking for this particular 

 purpose should be done when the alfalfa plants are 

 dormant. The grasshoppers that do the greatest harm 

 are not migratory, but breed and pass their existence 

 chiefly in the local alfalfa field. Army-worms have 

 been destrudtive in a few localities. These and other 

 insedl pests which pupate in the ground late in autumn, 

 according to Professor Hunter, are also destroyed by 

 disking. 



Poultry in large numbers on the farm are of great 

 service in keeping down the increase of noxious insedts. 

 Some farmers have done well by keeping turkeys to 

 free their alfalfa fields from grasshoppers. Turkeys 

 are raised and sometimes rented to farmers to be herded 

 in the alfalfa fields when the 'hoppers are bad, and 

 are found very efficient. 



DODDER 



The worst parasitic enemy of alfalfa is the dodder 

 or love vine (Fig. 15). Prof. F. H. Hillman's de- 

 scription of the weed is: "The plant is a parasite, 

 incapable of producing its own food, and thus depends 

 for maintenance upon the food elaborated by some 

 other plant. This particular species of dodder, 

 Cuscuta epithymum, confines its preference in the 

 main, if not wholly, to the alfalfa plant, which 

 it infests throughout America and Europe. State- 

 ments of this species infesting clovers have been 

 seen by the writer, but his own observations in 



