608 ANNUAL REPORTS OF E^EPARIMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



very largely are returned to the Treasury of the United States from 

 the charges made for such car and other fumigation — charges based 

 on the cost of chemicals and labor involved. 



The inspection at the footbridges, in cooperation with the customs 

 officials located at Brownsville, Laredo, Eagle Pass, and El Paso, 

 Tex., as well as the boundary line at Nogales, Ariz., has been continued 

 for the purpose of preventing the entry of cotton and cotton seed, as 

 well as other plant products covered by quarantine. A total of 

 55,511 pieces of contraband material was intercepted as follows: 

 Avocados, 13,422;^ corn, 4,971; cotton, 1,797; grapefruit, 519; 

 guavas, 2,842; limes, 2,106; mangoes, 1,550; oranges, 8,073; peaches, 

 8,037; plants, 5,601; plums, 882; p'^tatoes, 951; sapotes, 142; sugar 

 cane, 3,967; sweet potatoes, 651. 



THE CORN BORER. 



The administration of the corn-borer appropriation has been 

 assigned to the Bureau of Entomology but in cooperation with this 

 board as to quarantine features. There has been no new outbreak 

 of the corn borer this year; in other words, this pest is still limited, 

 so far as is known, substantially to the areas determined last year, 

 these representing for the most part areas of original infestation 

 from Europe in 1909 and 1910, namely, the New England area, the 

 eastern and western New York areas, and the Ontario area, from which 

 latter it has apparently spread, as determined last year, to the south- 

 ern and western shores of Lake Erie. There has been during the 

 year a local but limited natural spread of the insect in the case of 

 each of these areas. 



It would appear from this record that the quarantine and control 

 measures safeguarding the movement of products from the known 

 infested area have prevented wide jumps of the insect. The funds 

 available for this work, however, have been entirely inadequate 

 for general surveys of other States or areas and no positive claim is 

 made that the department now has information as to the existino 

 distribution of this pest in the United States. 



It is very important that the corn-borer work should be continued. 

 There is no question at afl as to the importance of this pest of corn. 

 It is a new pest and will be an additional burden on this crop. Dur- 

 ing the present year it has maintained itself about in the same status 

 as previously in the kno\vn areas of infestation, there being certainly 

 no increase of damage in the western areas of invasion in New York, 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, and, in point of fact, in these 

 areas no material commercial damage has ever resulted. The ex- 

 tensive damage which the insect frequently occasions in the New 

 England area seems to be explainable by the fact that the insect is 

 there double-brooded and that the cultural and crop conditions are 

 peculiarly favorable to its multiplication. The Canadian authorities 

 report that the damage in Ontario this year is very much less than 

 in either of the two previous years (1920 and 1921). This is supposed 

 to be due to better cultural conditions and also to the late planting 

 of corn. 



1 To permit the local consumption of tlie avocado fiiiit at ports on the border of Mexico, the board has 

 authorized the entry of such fruit when stoned or seeded. The avocado weevils wliich the avocado quaran- 

 tine is intended to exclude infest the seed and the removal of the seed practically eliminates any dangc 



