PRELIMINAEY REPORT ON ALFALFA WEEVIL. H 
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, liis 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 tliis 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 tliis sum would, however, become avail- 
able untd 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 proliib- 
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 wee\dl 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 obtaiued 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 ^ of an inch long, 
that is attacking alfalfa in Utah. It is not a native species but has come to Utah from 
Europe. 
