14 PKELIMINARY EEPOKT ON ALFALFA WEEVIL. 
have been impracticable for the bureau to liave 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, wliich 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 foUowing closely related species: Medicago falcata L., 
M. ruthenica (L.) Trautv., M. lupulina L., M. ciliaris (L.) All., M. 
echinus Lam., M. hispida nigra (Willd.) Burnet, M. hispida confinis 
(Koch) Burnet, M. hispida terehellum (Willd.) Urban, M. muricata 
(L.) AIL, 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. 
