AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
provoke an ap- 
and aid its per- 
were exhibited 
;rn N. Y. fair 
N. Y. fair at 
libition of the 
[December, 
to this 
rently 
what 
here 
body.", It is calcnlat^Tor a weight of 800 
pounds Itoeach s^jrfng. Two will thus bear 
1600 pounds^ ^^fpring for wagon-tonguls is 
* % this same principle is said 
ilroad cars 
[ with, springs 
set of springs 
i car after three years’ 
ctly Mastic as when first 
of swings made upon 
so great "that one made 
i-bar will bear a loadvof 7,000 
r^nd still be perfectly elastic uhder it. 
A Dangerous Weed in California. 
Improved agriculture is of sq recent a date in 
California, that but few of the pests in the way 
of insects and weeds that trouble the cultivator 
in the older States, have come to plague his 
California brother. Alfalfa or lucerne is one 
of the staples of Californian agriculture, and a 
weed that threatens the destruction of this 
crop, is a matter of the first importance. No- 
tices of a particularly troublesome dodder have 
appeared in the California papers, and we are 
indebted to the kind attentions of our friends 
of the Pacific Rural Press, of San Francisco, 
; nd of the Sonoma Democrat, for specimens, 
which have enabled us to examine the plant, 
and to make an engraving of ft. Almost every 
one knows our common dodders, which hang 
their yellow or copper-colored, wiry stems over 
the bushes in the swamps of the Atlantic States. 
There are ten native species east of the Missis- 
sippi, several more west of that river, and about 
seventy species thus far known throughout the 
world, all of which, with their varieties, are ad- 
mirably described in Dr. G. Engelmann’s elabo- 
rate account of the genus. The dodders are all 
parasites; the seed germinates in the ground, 
and the stem attaches itself to some other plant ; 
by means of numerous disks or suckers, it 
draws upon the other plant for nutriment, and 
soon cuts itself loose from the root, and feeds 
wholly upon its unfortunate host. Some dod- 
ders live upon exogenous plants indiscriminate- 
ly, while others prefer particular plants, or 
those of certain families ; one confines itself 
to flax, which, besides the one in question, is 
the most generally injurious. One of our na- 
tive species has been known to be troublesome 
upon young trees in nurseries. The dodder up- 
on alfalfa, so far as we can determine from de- 
scription, having no authentic specimens for 
comparison, is Guscuta racemosa^ variety GMU- 
ana. The species is a very variable one, and _ 
between it and related species there is some 
confusion. The seeds of this Were no doubt 
introduced into California with alfalfa seeds 
from Chili, the same as it was into Europe 
many years ago, where it was very destructive 
to lucerne, often destroying whole fields. The 
engraving shows the habit of the weed ; when 
once fixed, it spreads and entangles the several 
branches of a plant, or those of neighboring 
plants ; under this heavy draught made upon 
its life-blood, as we may regard the sap, the kb 
cerne ceases to grow, and at length turns yel- 
low, and dies from exhaustion. The Sonoma 
Democrat publishes an opinion that the dodder 
now so troublesome upon the alfalfa is a native 
species, but an examination of the specimens 
makes us quite sure that it is hot. One not ac- 
quainted with the minute characters, by which 
the species are distinguished, might, from their 
outward resemblance, regard them as the same. 
At the lower left hand of the engraving the 
relative size and shape of the two seeds are 
shown, both of course magnified. The alfalfa 
seed is like a minute, rather flattened, kidney 
bean ; that of the dodder is irregularly orbicu- 
lar, and only about one-third as long as the 
other. An ordinary magnifier will readily de- 
tect the presence of this or other foul seeds in 
the alfalfa seed. With this, as with other weeds, 
one important point is to avoid introducing it, 
and care in selecting the seed will do this. 
Where it makes its appearance the most prompt 
measures should be taken to prevent its spread. 
Cut the infested plants, and burn them, and do 
this before the parasite has matured its seeds. 
If the dodder has too full possession to allow 
this to be done, then the plan followed in 
France, (where a dodder, and probably the same 
species, is destructive,) may be adopted. Straw 
■Jig. 2.—torsi q^..wa.oqn-b ox stoino. 
is laid in abundance among the plants in a dry 
', and is then set on fire ; the sudden flame 
destroys the parasite, but does not materially 
injure the alfalfa, which starts from the roots, 
and the stems, that escape injury by the fire. 
