292 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRL\TIOX BILL, 1924. 



Mr. Buchanan. Has it done any damago whore it came from in 

 Japan i 



Mr. QuAiNTANCE. It is held in check there very well hy climatic 

 conditions and parasites: we have two of our men in Japan study- 

 ing it. 



Mr. Buchanan. Have they done anything over there trying to 



kill the heetle ( 



Mr. Quaintance. It is not an economic pest there, except locally 

 and in occasional years. 



Doct<>r Ball. Japan has no grass lands. The white grub breeds J 

 in grass lands. 



ATTACK.S KRIITS OF AM. KINDS. 



Mr. BrciiANAN. Does it attack fruits of any character except 

 apples and peaches ? 



Doctor Quaintance. It attacks cherries, grapes, and pears, and 

 probably plums; it will eat almost anything. Our records of its 

 injuries to plums are meager, because plums are not grown to any 

 great extent in the area. 



Mr. Buchanan. You think, then, if it lives in JapauMt will live in 

 nearlv every section of the United States ? 



Doctor Quaintance. There is every reason to believe it will 

 spread in every direction. 



Mr. Bi:cHANAN. Its greatest damage seems to be to grass: is 

 that it ^ 



Doctor C^iAiNTANCE. In golf courses it eats the grass, especially 

 on the putting greens, where the turf can sometimes be rmled up 

 like a blanket. 



PECAN INSECT WORK. 



i 



Doctor Howard. There is another slight increase in this of 

 $5,()UU, Mr. Chairman. 



Doctor Quaintance. That is an enlargement of the pecan insect 

 work in the South — in Georgia, Florida. Alabama, etc. There have 

 appeared there recently two serious insect pests of the pecan: One 

 the so-called southern stink bug, which is a green foul-smelling bug 

 that breeds especially on the cowpeas, grown largely in the orchards 

 for soil improvement purposes. They cut these peas for forage or 

 they die down and the bug migrates to the pecan trees and punctures 

 the nuts which at that time are still tender. The result of the 

 puncture apparently is to cause dwarfing or deterioration of that 

 part of the kernel in the shell —the meat — that was puiu-tured: and 

 last year and the year before there was a very heavy loss reported of 

 this peculiar charactei". The nuts looked all right and were sent out 

 to the trade, and then the ct)mplaints came in, and the brokers and « 

 growers were (|uite at a loss to detect the tr(Ui]>le .'ind stop it. That 

 is one of the insects that the pecan growers ha\ (> made representatit>ns 

 to the department about. 



Another is a small caterpillar, the larva of a little nu>th, that 

 appears in the spring about the tim(> th(> little pecans ai"c fornuMl. It 

 bores into the nuts and the nuts fall, and the injuries have been veiy 

 severe in the Southeast for a couple of yeaj-s and is on the increase. 

 This insect has be<>n (|uite bail in Texas and some yeais d(\stroys the 

 bidk of their crop on the river bottoms. In (Jeorgia we think it <|uit(> 

 possible to stop that trouble by sjiraying. 



