202 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



stem rust. Then they finally got a report that there was some black 

 stem rust in one place over there and Professor Henning, of Stock- 

 holm, one of the most eminent authorities on cereal diseases in the 

 world, went up there and he found there was a heavy outbreak of 

 black stem rust and traced it to a number of barberry bushes, and 

 that is the only place in western Sweden where they have yet found 

 black stem rust. 



In Norway the situation is exactly as clear. Wherever there are 

 barberries there are very heavy attacks of black stem rust and where 

 there are no barberries there are no attacks of black stem rust, so 

 that plant pathologists and agronomists are absolutely convinced that 

 rust can not exist independently of the barberry. 



I suppose the situation in Denmark is about tlie clearest of anv of 

 them. They had very severe epidemics of black stem rust in Den- 

 mark in which the conditions are quite similar to those in the upper 

 Mississippi Valley. As a matter of fact, they started a barberry war 

 along in 1805. The farmers insisted that the barberry bushes be 

 taken out but some of the owners of the bushes in the cities ami vil- 

 lages insisted that they should not be taken out. They had a very 

 severe epidemic every three or four years and sometimes every other 

 year. There are records going back to 1888. They liad a very de- 

 structive epidemic in 1888, another one in 1889 and still others in 1894. 

 1896, 1897, and 1901. Then they decided they had had about enouo:h 

 for awhile, so the farmers insisted on the passage of a barberry eradi- 

 cation law and such a law was passed. Denmark is a small country, 

 and, after the passage of that law, they commenced the work thor- 

 oughly and they had practicallv eradicated all of the barberry bushes 

 by 1904. Since that time they have not had a single serious outbreak 

 of black stem rust, and that is 19 years. I asked them whether 

 they would be sure to detect an outbreak of black stem rust if they 

 had one and they assured me they had agricultural experts in the 

 various parts of the country who would detect the slightest attack of 

 rust and that they are all reporting to the central laboratory, and in 

 all of these years they have been practically unable to find any black 

 stem rust in Denmark, although in some of the large grain areas 

 they have found a little bit here and there and they can trace it to 

 some barberry bush. 



I made a long trip through Denmark and found no black stem ru-Jt 

 on oats or other grains, but finally we came near the C )peahagen 

 municipal forest and found a trace of rust here and {\\^v? a> we came 

 closer to the forest, and when we got nearer the forc-it we found it wa^ 

 pretty heavy. We asked the forester whether he knew of any 

 barberry bushes in the woods, and he said he knew there wow st)me 

 there. We asked him whether they had been rusted, and he said 

 they not only had been rusted but they were still rusted. ^Ve looked 

 for the barberrv buslies and found them, and that was the only place 

 in Denmark w^iere I could find any black stem rust, aiul the only 

 damage done to grain at all was near these eomm')n barberry bushes. 



So tlie situation in Europe is perl'ectlv clear. In (he lii'st place, 

 they have eradicated practicallv all their barberrv l)ush(»s from tho 

 agricultural regions. It will be im|)ossil)le for them (o eradicate 

 them all from the moinitains, and for that reaso;i thev will never he 

 absolutely free from the rust, but (hey do not fear it like we do in (his 

 country. They do not have the terrific e|>idemics we have in this 



