Show THE ALFALFA WEEVIL the farmers of northern utah county have risen to the occasion and are battling the alfalfa weevil with their might says heber J webb assistant entomologist of the agricultural college mr air webbs special work Is to fight the weevil in this vicinity and he be spends practically all his time lime in the field the alfalfa growers have been thoro thoroughly converted to the remedy prescribed bl by mr air webb and his associates namely vig orous application of the spring tooth barrow and brush drag als true some will not act till the value of the work was borne in upon their consciousness ness uy by cold facts however horev r when they saw that they had lost their crop while their neighbor who nho bad applied the remedy harvested harvest d a better one than usual they decided to act As a result it is thought that 98 per cent of the farmers oil of this section are following the prescribed course detter better farming Is the keynote after the first crop of hay is gathered the spring tooth is run over the field once or twice according to the condition of the soil then the brush drag Is drawn up tip and down the field wih the idea of making a flue fine dust duet this dust gets into the bodies of the worms and fills up its breathing pores the insect then dies of suffocation as I 1 a min man would under water if a very hot day is chosen to do the work so BO much the better as a hot sun will de stroy many of the worms when they are attempting to crawl to the stems and to shade many of the pupae in the cocoons are crushed or dried out in a few hours by the sun As a result of this treatment the weevil has troubled nort northern bern utah county much less this year than jasd the best fields produced three and one half tons per acre of first crop some growers had a better yield than was realized before the advent of the weevil it seems that the alfalfa weevil has come as a missionary to teach utah farmers the lesson of better farming this insect has done much good mr webb told the writer it has compelled us to cultivate our fields more this extra cultivation entails only a small cost a matter of per acre or less which is more than paid by therie avier yields iv even n it if no weevil had visited us the carrying out of 0 the thorough cultivation idea would have paid big returns for foi the trouble the great danger now is that the growers may slack up in their efforts when their seems to be no immediate danger many are inclined to rest on their oars following up the spring tooth and brush drag treatment not only gives present relief but shows itself in the next years crop some who worked their alfalfa last year had a much heavier first cutting this year weeds and lucern on ditch banks and fence row sand rubbish of all kinds should be cleaned up so that the weevil will have less hiding places for winter this is the message mr webb is carrying from farm to farm ile he now la Is busy trying to locate all odthe insects winter hiding places another fact the weevil has taught 1 us its is that we must attend abend more strictly to the matter of crop rotation no lucern field should be left more than five years plow them up and sow so something else the birds he argues are of great b benefit befit to the tillers of the soil in all these problems the meadow lark chipping sparrow bobolink robin blackbird grosbeak and nearly all the rest devour many of the weevils and other pests however boys go on killing them and that despite the tact fact that there is a law against it people of all communities should urge their children to let the birds alone the english sparrow is of little benefits benefit since it rarely flies into the fields A man that will not apply the remedy for alfalfa weevil of cour course s e is a menace to his neighbors tor for the pest travels from place to place by flying about thirty miles a year not fast but travels just the some same every agriculturist ri throughout utah should keep this in mind no honorable person wants to become a public nuisance sance lack of action comes come most likely through thoughtless neglect mr air webb informs us that in no case in his district has a farmer applied the remedy suggested without getting the desired results and the prospect in this belt tor for good crops next year Is assured the utah farmer |