April, '22] HARNED & KIMBALL: SWEET POTATO INSPECTION 149 



ago we found a nest of the brown tail moth in a French importation. 

 The caterpillars in this nest were alive and healthy, and were carried to 

 maturity in the insectarj^ This is the only one we ever found. It 

 does not seem possible that this was the only nest of live caterpillars of 

 this insect which ever entered the state. As some experiments in eastern 

 Canada seem to show, a very cold winter will kill the larvae. We often 

 have very cold winters in Minnesota. 



It would be a fascinating subject to think about and discuss what 

 might have happened had Congress passed a quarantine act fifty years 

 before 1912, with how many less pests would we have to contend today: 

 or with how many less would we have to contend if Congress had passed 

 a quarantine act in 1898 the year after Dr. L. 0. Howard's recommenda- 

 tion. These are very interesting subjects but not all pertinent to the 

 present. The pests that are here now are the ones we are interested 

 in; these and their control, and the methods by which we can prevent 

 any more pests entering the country are the subjects which most appeal 

 to us at this moment. 



Chairman Ruggles: The next paper on the program is by R. W. 

 Hamed and H. H. Kimball. 



THE SWEET POTATO INSPECTION SERVICE IN MISSISSIPPI 



By R. W. Harned and H. H. Kimball, Agricultural College, Miss. 



So far as we know Mississippi was the first state to inaugurate a state- 

 wide compulsory sweet potato inspection service. For several years 

 the necessity of such an inspection service had been felt. This need 

 had been emphasized by the large losses due to preventable sweet potato 

 diseases that were being distributed throughout the State in seed sweet 

 potatoes and sweet potato plants, and also by the danger of carrying 

 the sweet potato weevil into uninfested sections of the State. 



We do not feel that the Mississippi State Plant Board has started 

 anything new or deserves any credit for any originality in this matter. 

 The idea probably originally came to us while reading about certified 

 Irish potatoes in other parts of the country. Probably a year before the 

 Mississippi sweet potato inspection service was started, the State 

 Plant Board of Arkansas under the direction of their Chief Inspector, 

 Professor G. C. Becker, was urging the use of certified sweet potatoes 

 for planting purposes. In fact. Professor Becker had a well organized 

 sweet potato inspection service, but it was entirely voluntary. Anyone 

 in Arkansas who wished to produce certified seed sweet potatoes could 



