484 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



tected in them, and yet the disease may be there, just as doctors tell 

 us that we have all the germs in us that most people die of, but we 

 do not die — all at once, at least. 



It is possible that this disease may attack plants and not be recog- 

 nized, but it is known that if susceptible potatoes are planted m 

 an invaded district within eight years the disease will probably appear 

 again: in other words, when you once get it into a district it is very 

 doubtful whether you will ever get rid of it. We do not feel that the 

 time has yet come — and we have not done it — to open our ports to 

 foreign potatoes from countries where the disease exists, because 

 that would mean that the whole country might be flooded with 

 potatoes that might carry the disease. We are maintaining our 

 potato quarantine against foreign countries where the disease is 

 known to occur, in spite of the fact that we know the disease exists 

 in limited districts in this country. These districts are, however, not 

 trade districts from which potatoes are exported and thej^ are of 

 little danger to the country as a whole — that is, immediate danger. 

 Furthermore, the movement of potatoes from these districts is pro- 

 hibited and controlled under State quarantines. 



Doctor Ball. That is exactly the same policy which England and 

 France are carrying out at the present time; they have such disease 

 districts and they are holding the disease there. 



rOR ERADICATION OF THE PINK BOLLWORM OF COTTON. 



Mr. Anderson. We will next take up the item on page 331, to 

 enable the Secretary of Agriculture to meet the emergency caused 

 by the existence of the pink bollworm of cotton in Mexico, etc. 

 Doctor Marlatt, I think, perhaps you had better tell us, somewhat in 

 detail, what the status of this pink bollworm is, as we want to keep 

 track of this fellow. 



Doctor Marlatt. I have covered that subject in the statement I 

 have submitted, but I will be glad to abbreviate it and repeat it. j 



I have a very hopeful report to make on that pest. I am sorry I can I 



not say, as 1 did of the potato wart, that we have found any cotton 1 



that is immune to it or any district in America that is going to be < 



immune from that pest. In other words, the menace of this pest to :i 



the American cotton crop is the same that it has been before, and it 

 is therefore worth our while to continue every effort humanly pos- ■ 



sible to keep it out and to complete the eradication wliich now seems 

 to be in a very favorable status. i, 



Last year, and I mean by that the crop year of 1921, but a single 

 pink bollworm in a single boll was found in the large Trinity Bay (lis- 

 trict, where the insect first got its big foothold. A considerable 

 portion of that district was maintained as a noncotton zone in 1921, 

 but a considerable portion of it was planted, and in the planted area — 

 all of wliicii was under thorough inspection — but a single infested boll 

 was found containing a single j)ink bollworm. That was mighty en- 

 couraging, and that result has come about from the work the depart- 

 ment htus done in that district since 1918, aided, in large measure, by 

 very favorable clinnilic coiulilions, which have helped out the fight. 

 Even when the State failed to come forward, as it ilid for a year, with 

 full (cooperation, it so happened that that year was a year of floods 

 throughout that district and cotton failed to grow; it wa.s drowned out 



II 



