414 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



Bureau of Plant Industry are now working— perhaps the cost of gather- 

 ing^ and conveying them to the drying plant might be covered. 



By using good seed potatoes, free from mixture and disease, true to 

 type and produced in a soil and under climatic conditions favorable to 

 the production of a high quality of potato, the production would be 

 vastly increased. This year ilichigan, I\Iaine, Wisconsin and ]\Iinnesota 

 had made provision for a field inspection of potatoes, upon the applica- 

 tion of the growers. Usuallv the inspection was made by a potato 

 specialist and a plant pathologist. The first inspection should be made 

 when the plants were in bloom, because at this stage varietal mixtures 

 were more easily detected. If the inspected field were found free from 

 mixture and disease on the first examination, it was certified as to 

 purity of stock and freedom from disease, but was also subject to a 

 second examination just prior to harvesting the crop. This inspection 

 consisted in digging hills of potatoes here and there throughout the 

 field to determine the relative productiveness, trueness to type, freedom 

 from scab and other diseases. If the field, when first inspected, was 

 found to contain varietal mixtures or diseased plants, the grower was 

 requested to remove such plants from the field. Ten days or two Aveeks 

 later another inspection was made and if the owner had complied with 

 the request his field was entitled to certification, provided it met with 

 the requirements of the third inspection. On the other hand, if he had 

 not complied with the requirements, his crop was not certified for use 

 as seed potatoes. Each state, as yet, had its own special requirements. 

 A uniform standard was needed for all states. This question was to be 

 discussed at the Annual Convention of the National Potato Association, 

 to be held at East Lansing, Michigan, December 2 and 3, 1914. 



The development of disease resisting varieties was very important, as 

 it would require a number of years to produce such varieties. In 

 Germany, varietal resistant stock had been developed to a certain 

 extent. 



The Tuber Moth. 



In the discussion relative to the life history of the tuber moth, ]\Ir. 

 John A. Graf, of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department 

 of Agriculture, brought out several important points. In his investi- 

 gations he found that all the evidence points toward the tuber moth 

 being a native insect, and not an imported one, as was hitherto believed. 



In the matter of quarantine the tuber moth was unlike any of the 

 other insects against which we were quarantining, in that it depended 

 for its sustenance on an annual plant, and its numbers in any year were 

 governed by conditions and not by the numbers of the moths the pre- 

 ceding year. In the same way its numbers one year had no direct 

 influence on the numbers the following year. "With this in mind it 

 seemed that careful inspection might take the place of quarantine, and 

 give justice to everyone. 



Diseases of the Potato. 



Prof. "W. T. Home, of the California Experiment Station, talked on 

 the diseases of the potato. He brought out the following points : ]Much 

 work had been done on the internal In-own streak of the potato, but so 

 far the cause had not been determined. This disease was not of much 

 importance in the Delta region. Wilt fungus was an important trouble. 



