The La Jara chronicle., 1907-07-26
Some Most Serious Weed Pests
In Colorado Alfalfa Fields
Under Cultivation.

Some rev weeds are appearing
in our alfalfa fields and not only
reduce the market value of the
hay, but threaten to spread to the
entire farm.
Attention should be called to
these weed pests so farmers will
observe them and seek more gem
orally to fight them.
l. Our first one is white sweet
clover (Melilotus alba) Sweet
clover is biennial and alfalfa a
perennial plant. The leaf of sweet
clover is divided into three leaflets.
flowers borne in rather close
cluster or head, seed pod straight,
aud alfalfa seed pod coiled. usually
in two to three turns. The sweet
clover pod contains one and alfalfa
four to five seeds. White sweet
clover has an erect, bushy-like
growth ranging from three to six
feet in height While the bios
SONS of sweet clover are quite fra
grant, containing a honey-like
nectar, the foliage, when grown,
has a bitter acid taste not relished
by stock.
=. Yellow sweet clover (melil-
otus officinalis) is, within the last
few years getting into our alfalfa
fields and along our ditch banks.
1t has narrower leaf than the
white blossom variety and has re-
cumbent growth so that the lowest
cut of the mower or even the
scythe will not always clip off the
stems permitting some seed to
form. Since they multiply a
thousand fold, they propagate very
rapidly, and almost before one can
realize it the field is teeming with
this yellow peril
3 Yellow Trefoil (medicago
lupulint) is not very general in our
state as yet, but it being brought
in with alfalfa seed, and may be-
come most serious weed pest.
The yellow trefoil plant grows
about the same height as alfalfa.
The leaf is divided into leaflets
similar to alfalfa, but are shorter
and broader, more like clover
leaf. Blossoms are borne in clus-
tered racemes. are somewhat small |
er than alfalfa and "A clear yellow
when the alfalfa bloom is purple.
1t is the hop-l like cluster of the
blossoms which causes some peo-
pie to call this plant hop clover.
4. Prickly Lettuce L acenca
scariola.) This is an erect annual
usually from two to six feet high.
The lower portion of the stem has
stiff bristles. The leaves are med
ium long, with notched or toothed |
margins and midrib beset with |
weak prickles. The seeds are car
ried long distances by the wind
and also by our irrigation waters. I
Dewey states that one plant has
been known to bear 5000 seeds.
s. Dodder (Custuta epithy-
NUM- This is a most pernicious
parasite feeding upon alfalfa or
clover. DIR. Pammel, of the Iowa /
Experiment station. gives the fol-
lowing racy description in bulletin
No. 20. Weeds in Iowa. The
dodders are leafless, excepting the
small scales on the stems: herbs of
yellowish color. with thread-like
stems twining around the plants
upon which they live. They
pierce the bark Tor epidermis or
host) with small and short rootlets
which are called suckers. The
seeds are small, terminates in the
soil and grow sufficiently in length
to allow plants to come in contact
with the plant upon which it lives.
when it Immediately sends in its
suckers and thus becomes estab-
lished upon the plant as though
it was IA part of the host. The dod-
.. Il, Ill hn