186 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRL\TIOX BILL, 1924, 



As a basis for that rp((upst, you already have some knowledge of 

 what was accomplisheil by the Department of Acrriculture with the 

 appropriation of SSoO.OOO, and this committee will assume, unles- 

 otherwise instructed, that you are completely informed with re<ranl 

 to the manner in which that appropriation has actually been handled 

 by the Department of Agriculture. In addition to that, of course. 

 we want to present some general considerations about the accom- 

 plishments. of the past season from the lay point of view and from tho 

 point of view of the farmers and grain growers themselves. In a 

 general way, it can be said unqualifiedly and emphatically that bv 

 reason of tlie appropriation of S3o0,000 the work of barberry bush 

 eradication has been tremendously expedited, and that gains were 

 made in attacking the problem that could not po.ssibly have been 

 made in three or four or five years of smaller expenditures. We are 

 now in a position, by reason of the fact that the campaign has pro- 

 gressed so successfully, to see the end of the campaign, and that. I 

 tal^e it, is something in which (V)ngress is very much interested. You 

 have been making appropriations now since 1918. This year 8300,000 

 was expended, and that has brought the campaign to the point where 

 we can say that it is very pro})able that in almost all ()f tiie States 

 included in the barberry eradication area the necessity for any Feil- 

 eral assistance after two more years will have been eliminated: and 

 that in many of the States, as some of the gentlemen present will 

 show you, only one more year of Federal cooperation and Federal 

 financial support will do the job. 



During the past summer the organization of which I have spoken 

 has been directing its efforts toward the dissemination of general 

 information with regard to the barberry and the destruction to grain 

 which it has caused. For that purpose we have put on a widespreatl 

 publicity campaign, which has brought very tangible results. In 

 order to give you a practical idea of what we have done. I will say 

 that we have sent out altogether about 500,000 pieces of publicity, 

 including informative literature and posters. These have been dis- 

 tributed to the county agents, railroad-station agents, lumber yards, 

 creameries, mills, banks, elevators, and to many indivitluals and 

 other institutions throughout our area of 13 States. A careful check 

 shows that our posters are being well displayed, and that we arc 

 getting the message across to the people to whom it Ls directed. In 

 addition to that, we have succeeded in obtainiiig about "i.oOO columns 

 of newspaper space. That, of course, is publicity which reaches tiic 

 individuals direct, and it shows a desire upon the part of the news- 

 papers to cooperate with the Federal anil State Governments and 

 with ourselves in this movement, which is exceedingly important. 

 In addition to that we have provitled a large number of exhibits 

 showing exactly what the barberry bush is and the damage that it 

 causes. 



With our exhibits we have reached lOS countv fairs, about 30 or 

 35 State fairs and sectional expositions, and sucli larger expositions 

 as the Pageant of Progress at Chicago and the National Dairy Show 

 at St. Paul. The result of our campaign is and we are sincercdy 

 convinced of this fact that there has been built up a widespread 

 public sentiment. n\ Inch, as you know, is the most eirective wi'a{)on 

 m a campaign of this kind. We have succeeded in building up this 

 sentiment bv reason of (he fad that the FcMleral (lovernment was 



