OCR Text |
Show Alfalfa Seed . . . or abandoned. With the decline of seed yields, scientists at the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station began to study stu-dy the causes. After much research re-search came the important discovery dis-covery that lygu bugs were a maj or factor causing the low yields. When this discovery was made it was 'found that there were no insecticides then available that would give economic control of this pest. It was not until the development of DDT and the other oth-er new organic insecticides that successful control measures for this pest could be worked out. Since 1945 there has been a notable not-able improvement in yields and total production of alfalfa seed in Utah and other western states. But it has been found that although al-though alfalfa will not produce adequate yields of seed without the control of lygus bugs, there are other factors important to the production of high seed yields, a-mong a-mong which are soils and soil mois ture, variety of al'falfa, cultural and management practices, and in sect pollination. Many factors are involved and these require the attention at-tention of workers in various branches bran-ches of agricultural science. |