•6- 



ceilings which seek to protect the farmer, supplier and manufacturer from 

 possible fluotations in price due to the scarcity of supply. 



Arsenic trioxide, from which all arsenical* are derived, is used 

 chiefly in the control of pests on apples,, cotton and potatoes. Cryolite 

 is used to combat apple pests in the Northwest. Rotenone is the principal 

 insecticidal constituent of timbo, barbasco, cube and derris root. It was 

 formerly used in the control of many different kinds of pestsr However, 

 its use is now restricted to certain crops, Pyrethrum is the active in- 

 gredient of «pray», v/ashes, powders and dusts used on certain vegetable 

 crops and on livestock. Nicotine sulfate is widely used, and this year 

 it must help supplant the shortage of other materials, 



SHOULD INSECTICIDES AM) FUNGICIDES BE RATIOI^IED? 



In view of the situation concerning coffee, sugar, and many other com- 

 modities, this seems to be a logical question. In a recent issue of A, I,F. 

 News, these points are brought outi To ration a thing - to limit each con- 

 sumer to so many oxmces a week - there must be enough so that each consumer 

 actually can find and buy that many ounces. If insecticides and fungicides 

 were rationed on any conceivable basis, no grower facing a real attack by 

 insects or plant disease would get enough. And those fortunate enough to 

 escape would not need even the amounts alloted to them. 



There are more than enough of agricultural insecticides and fungicides 

 for average needs, even though not enough to ration. Insecticides and fungi- 

 cides/most vitally needed when insects or plant diseases appear - and when 

 these emergencies come, they are needed in quajitities large enough to control 

 the pests. Using not enough is money thrown away, a total loss. 



Fire fighting is a good parallel. A city would not think of rationing 

 fire equipment, stationing so much apparatus and so many firemen in each block. 

 Instead, apparatus and firemen are concentrated at strategic points, ready to 

 rush to the places where fires breeik out. Those places are largely unpredict- 

 able - like plant pest outbreaks, 



ViTien the boll v/eevil is on the march, the embattled grower may use 15 

 pounds of calcium arsenate to the acre. Suppose this material v/ere rationed 

 to provide 15 pounds for each of the 25,000,000 acres of cotton. That would 

 require 375,000,000 pounds. Yet the greatest amount of calcium arsenate ever 

 produced and consumed in a year was 70,000,000 pounds. The annual consumption 

 may run as low as 20,000,000 pounds. The same situation applies to many other 

 spray and dust materials. 



CRITICAL SITUATION REGARDING YJOOD FIBRE SHIPPING CONTAINERS 



The Vfar Production Board recently released information stating that 

 in order to purchase any empty, new or used boxes, crates, cases, barrels, kegs, 

 kits, pails, drums, tubs, baskets or hampers, either setup or knocked down, 

 made either fully or in part from wood or corrugated or solid fibre, and used 



