194 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 192 1. 



of the Federal and State campaign for barberry eradication in its 

 bearing on the food supj)ly of the countr}-. 



Mr. Hill. I wonder whether I might add another thing ? 



Mr. Anderson. Yes. 



Mr. Hill. I just happened to think of something which occurred 

 near my own farm. As I stated before, I have been k)sing my wheat 

 crop and I seemed to be pretty nearly the first one in the neighbor- 

 hood to discover black rust on my wheat, and when the survev was 

 made this last summer barberry bushes were discovered witliin a 

 mile of my farm and which, I am satisfied, have been guilty of spread- 

 ing black rust on my crops. A survey had never been made in my 

 county until this past summer. 



Monday, November 27, 1922. 



STATEMENT OF MR. GRAY SILVER, PRESIDENT AMERICAN 

 FARM BUREAU FEDERATION. 



Mr. Silver. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: 

 You have heard the statements of the gentlemen from the infested 

 areas and are to hear from the technical men who will follow them. 

 I want to add the voice of the American Farm Bureau Federation 

 in this plea and call attention to the great economic loss that is 

 going on and which can be avoided. The taking of plant food from 

 the soil, the use of the labor and equipment necessary to grow these 

 crops only to have them lost or wasted, are, of course, serious things 

 not only for the farmer but for the consuming public, which means 

 the Nation at large. 



The men who have testified do not come here with propaganda 

 or with idle talk; they are here with a message right from their 

 hearts, from the grass roots and from the basic source of supply of 

 foodstuffs of the United States, because these black lands are the 

 surplus producing sections of the country; that means they produce 

 all the surplus foodstufTs that are consumed in the cities and ;iway 

 from the black lands. 



When they have gone so far in their home States as to pass laws that 

 give them the right to go on infested properties and take the action 

 that is necessary to aid this eradication, and when they have made tlie 

 progress these men report, it is certainly a very reasonable thing to 

 ask of the Federal Government that cooperation which will bring 

 about the complete eradication of this great pest, a pest which is 

 causing such great economic losses in tiie small grains. These people 

 are asking cooperation. They are not asking the Government to do 

 it alone; they are asking cooperation and team work. 1 want to say 

 that not only tlie farm bureau members from these vStates but from 

 other States join with those Tueinbers in the itifested States in asking 

 that you grant this appropriation and in that wav assist in tiiis cause. 



Mr. Fuller. We have, Mr. C^hairman, two teclinical experts as 

 members of this committee. I am first going to a^^k Dr. G. II. (\>ons. 

 plant j)ath()l()gist of the Miciiigan Agricultural College, to present 

 some additional aspects of this problem. 



