150 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol, 15 



have his potatoes and potato plants inspected by applying to the Arkansas 

 State Plant Board and by paying certain fees. Early in the spring of 

 1920, while our plans for starting a sweet potato inspection service 

 were still in a rather nebulous condition, the Cotton States' Entomolo- 

 gists had a meeting at Vicksburg, Mississippi, where in a personal con- 

 versation with Professor Becker we learned for the first time about the 

 sweet potato inspection service in Arkansas and we immediately proceed- 

 ed to adopt nearly the same system in Mississippi. Details of the 

 Arkansas sweet potato inspection service may be found in Circular No. 9 

 of the Arkansas State Plant Board, Little Rock, Arkansas. 



The chief difference between the two inspection services are that in 

 Arkansas it is voluntary with the grower. A man may buy or sell cer- 

 tified seed sweet potatoes or may not do so and the growers of certi- 

 fied sweet potatoes must pay for at least a part of the inspection service. 

 In Mississippi, it is illegal to sell or ship seed sweet potatoes or sweet 

 potato plants that have not been inspected and certified. Every grower 

 who expects to sell sweet potatoes for planting purposes must have his 

 sweet potatoes and sweet potato plants inspected and certified. This 

 service is paid for by the State and is rendered at no cost to the grower, 

 except that he must pay for the numbered certificate tags that are 

 issued at actual cost. 



The sweet potato inspection service is very similar to the nursery 

 inspection service. We adopted the numbered certificate plan that has 

 been so satisfactory in our nursery inspection work, — one of the many 

 excellent ideas that we copied from the State Plant Board of Florida. 

 If at any time any serious disease or insect pest should be found attack- 

 ing the sweet potatoes of any grower who has sold plants or potatoes 

 for planting purposes, we can promptly locate all properties to which 

 shipments have been made by this grower. 



During 1921 each grower was required to send promptly to the Plant 

 Board office a copy of the invoice accompanying each shipment of pota- 

 toes or potato plants. This invoice gave the name and address of the 

 consignee and of the consignor, the quantity and variety of potatoes 

 or plants and the number of the Plant Board certificate permit that 

 accompanied the shipment. This was satisfactory except that there 

 was no uniformity about the size, shape and appearance of the invoices 

 sent in and there was often considerable delay in sending the invoices. 

 To overcome these troubles, during 1922 the permit certificate tags 

 will be made up of two parts each containing the same nimiber. These 

 parts will be divided by a perforated line so that they can be easily sepa- 

 rated. Both parts will contain the same information — name and address 



