520 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1921. 



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Friday, Decemuer 1, 1922. 



new ibeklv (la.) experimental station. 



STATEMENT OF HON. W, P. MARTIN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 

 CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 



Mr. Anderson, 'Vho coininittoo will return to page 'M7, the item 

 relatinoj to experiments and demonst rat ions in live-stock produetion 

 in the eane-sujj;ar and cotton districts of the United States, for the 

 piirj)()se of liearin<^ Senator Kansdell and r^onjj^ressman Martin, in 

 whose (hstrict, I assume, this station is loeaTed. 



Mr. Martin. Yes. 



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pest was not able to live over the winter and infect the gi'owing wheat 

 except as it went through the barberry. 



Mr. Lee. Then if you destroy all the barl)erries you think you will 

 have no more rust '( 



Doctor Ball. If we destroy absolutely all of the barberries in the 

 northern region, then all of the rust they could liaAC in the northern 

 wheat-growmg section would be what blew up from the southern 

 region, where it can live over the winter. 



Mr. Lee. There was something said here last year to the effect that 

 some other growth or host plant caused the rust. 



Doctor Ball. That is in the South. The funny thing is that in the 

 South the barberries do not carry the rust because, you see, it lives 

 over on the wheat and does not ordinarily form the stage that goes 

 to the barbemes. So that in the Sijuth the barbemes are not the ,|| 



carriers, but in the North they are the only carriers of rust. That is * 



something which was not known before and it is the revei'se of what 

 was taught us in the beginning. 



Mr. Buchanan. A gentleman appeared before us who had been 

 sent to Europe to study this condition; he made a very thorough 

 investigation, as the result of which it was demonstrated that in tne 

 colder climates the rust is carried only through the barberries. 



Mr. Lee. I was in doubt about that because there was something 

 in the hearings last year to the effect that they thought they had 

 discovered some other plant. 



Doctor Ball. All of us thought that, but it has now been demon- i 



strated that the barberry is the only carrier in the northern section 4 



of the country. There are hundreds of other opportunities to take 

 from agriculture overheads it is now carrying, liKe the rust, as soon 

 as our scientific work is carried to the point where we feel sure we 

 have the method necessary and the money necessary. We are hoping 

 to be able to obtain money very soon to make a test of the possibility 

 of getting those warbles out of the backs of cattle. There is no 

 question but what it would not cost much more to take those warbles 

 out of the backs of cattle than is represented in the damage they do 

 in one year, and if we expended that amount of mone\' for two years, 

 or possibly three years, we would be rid of that pest forever. That 

 is only one of a large number of plant diseases and insect pests which, 

 when the time becomes ripe, we will be willing to say we will under- 

 take to eliminate. 



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