6 Eighteenth Report State Entomologist ok Minnesota — 1920 



amine every farmstead for the common l)arberry. Nine counties. Lac 

 Qui Parle, Yellow Medicine, Lincoln, Lyon, Pipestone, Murray, Nobles, 

 Jackson, and Martin, were completely surveyed. While systematic 

 survey was carried on in nine counties, a tenth, Faribault, was almost 

 completed, but w(jrk was cut off on account of the weather. Besides 

 this work, nursery inspectors who were working all over the state were 

 always on the alert and reported many bushes. The most of the field 

 work, however, was carried on by the Office of Cereal Investigations, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, under L. W. Melander, state leader, and 

 under general direction of Dr. E. M. Freeman, of the Division of 

 Plant Pathology and Botany, University Farm. Approximately $10,000 

 of Federal funds were spent since July 1, 1920, when the campaign 

 for the present year began. Some funds are still on hand so the 1921 

 campaign will possibly start before May 1. 



To date, 729,875 bushes have been found in Minnesota, 729,411 

 have been dug. Of these, 5,562 bushes were found this year on 223 

 properties. The bushes on 191 properties have been removed. Thirty- 

 one of these plantings had escaped from cultivation, or, in other words, 

 were wild. 



Southeastern Minnesota, particularly along the Mississippi, pre- 

 sents a condition somewhat dift'erent from other parts of the state. 

 Here many farms are infested with barberry bushes which have not 

 been planted by the farmer, but seeds have evidently been carried for 

 miles by birds, to sprout and grow into bushes. To remove these 

 bushes costs the farmer a considerable amount of money through no 

 fault of his own, and to enforce the law causes considerable antag- 

 onism. An extra man on the job to help the farmer take out these 

 bushes and employed entirely by the state would help this difficulty. 



In almost every outbreak of wheat stem rust the source of infec- 

 tion can l)e traced to the barberry. A farmer in ( ioodhue county re- 

 cently said that in 1918 he did not have a bit of stem rust until after a 

 severe northwest wind and rain. The field assistant pointed out an 

 area due northwest of this man's farm where in 1919. 13,000 bushes 

 were destroyed. S])ores evidently were carried from this infested 

 area by the wind. 



The federal and state departments are working in close coopera- 

 tion and give each other all the help possible. If this cooperation can 

 continue for five years, with the state helping a little more financially 

 than at present, the survey of Minnesota for barberry will be near 

 completion, and the great majority of bushes will have been removed. 

 However, the danger of bushes esca]Mng from cultivation must not be 



