| Show HOW TO FIGHT THE ALFALFA WEEVIL dr E G titus entomologist from the agricultural experiment station at logan gave an interesting and instructive tive talk to the tanners farmers in the tremonton Tre monton school house last saturday his subject was the alfalfa weevil and how to combat it lie first gave a description script lon of the weevil and its depredations dat ions fous its life history and development from the egg to tho the perfect insect how it Is disseminated and what is known of its habitan a anil nil powers of resistance prof titus says that the trisect insect has become quite prevalent in the central part of the state and has proved so destructive that many farmers did not harvest enough hay bay to pay for the labor ot of cutting culling and that without a combined effort on the part of everybody ever body in a neighborhood neighbor bood there is little likelihood of one man bucce ding in getting or keeping rid of the post for it ia a a migratory insect arid and goes front from one field to another very quickly when undisturbed from various experiments peri ments conducted under the auspices of the station it had been learnd learna A that hardly anything short of fire hlll ill kill the matured insects even breezing will rot not harm barm them as he had proved by freezing them up in a cake of ice arid and when thawed out aliey were as lively as ever and seemed to enjoy the experience thoroughly arid and harrowing the field as eaily in tho the spring as possible and breaking up the clods of alfalfa with a spring tooth harrow then using a rush brush drag a sufficient time to make a i thorough mulch of dust had proved one of the most effective means of destroying the larvae crush brush harrows with steel wire teeth had many advantages over the ordinary harrow in breaking up the earth clods and making a dust that would choke the larvae to death diagrams illustrating how hese bese drags dragg and harrows wore were made were placed on the blackboard to give everyone an idea how to proceed to make them tile the first year of their coming the to do very little damage and their presence will hardly be known the second year from a quarter to a three quarters of the first crop and ironi from a qu quarter jarter to a half of the second crop will be injured and in the third there will not be enough alfalfa left to be worth mentioning and the field might as well be plowed up at once those adult insects that live through th cwb te r alake march or april affa and soon lay idy their eggs the eggs hatch in seven to sixt en days and the larvae commence feeding on the inside of the stalks where the eggs were deposited but in three or four days they emerge and climb up the stalk where they feed on the tender buds destroying them and preventing pie venting their growth the weevil has few enemies the toad being the principal one to teed feed upon them the most common places place lor jor them during the winter are tile the weeds and gra grass along the fence rows and especially the sweet clover along the canals and roads if these could be cut and burned in the fall it would destroy millions of them the cutting and burning of tile the first crop furnish d two good crops during e ot of tile the season but the burning of I 1 the first crop was quite difficult on i count of it being too full p ot juice ind he disc harrow and brush drag has been so far the dosu effective of destruction for the pests th school chool house was well filled with warmers and all were well pleas ed with the excellent instruction and I 1 advice of the professor and lie he re ived their hearty thanks tremont TI times mes |
