April,'22] HARNED & KIMBALL: SWEET POTATO INSPECTION 151 



of consignor and consignee, quantity and variety of potatoes or plants 

 and permit number. The tag part containing the eye will be attached 

 to the shipment and the other part will be mailed at once to the Plant 

 Board office. 



The chief aims of the sweet potato inspection service are (1) to prevent 

 the further introduction and spread of the sweet potato weevil (Cylas 

 formicanus) , of Black-rot (Sphaeronema fimbriatum), and of Stem-rot 

 (Fusarium batatatis) (2) to control, reduce and if possible in time erad- 

 icate these troubles from the state, and (3) to prevent the introduction 

 and spread of any other sweet potato pests that occur in other parts 

 of the world, or that we may not know of at the present time. 



The inspection service has been given plenty of publicity through the 

 agricultural, daily and weekly papers that circulate in the state, by the 

 coimty agents and by the railroads. Several posters have been issued 

 that have been put up in public places in all parts of the state. The 

 first two posters were copied from the Arkansas Plant Board posters 

 through the courtesy of Professor Becker. Later, posters illustrating 

 black and stem rot and the sweet potato weevil were issued. 



The sweet potato weevil is only known to occur in the four southern- 

 most counties of the State and a separate eradication campaign against 

 this pest has been conducted for several years in cooperation with the 

 U. S. Bureau of Entomology .^Satisfactory progress has been made in 

 eradicating this pest. 



Black-rot and Stem-rot are quite generally distributed over the State 

 and for years had been causing increasingly larger losses each year. 

 Some farmers had stopped raising sweet potatoes, as their losses from 

 disease had been so great as to make it unprofitable to try to raise them. 

 It was common to hear men say that they had lost 50% or 65% or even 

 80% of their potatoes because of black-rot. We believe that losses 

 of this kind are now a thing of the past in Mississippi. One interesting 

 instance came to our attention only a few days ago. In a certain com- 

 munity last spring, all the farmers except one planted certified seed and 

 took al! the precautions that are recommended to avoid Black-rot. 

 There was one farmer who said he did not believe there was anything 

 to all that foolishness about preventing diseases and went ahead without 

 taking any precautions. This fall when the farmers in this community 

 hauled their potatoes to the community storage house the only one who 

 had black-rot among his potatoes was this one man who did not believe 

 in the inspection service. In another county a man who did not be- 

 lieve in the inspection service went over into another state in his automo- 

 bile and smuggled in his supply of sweet potato plants. This fall the 



