The white-fringed beetle infests less acreage now than at any time in the last 20 
years. Infestations in New Jersey and South Carolina have been eliminated. Substantial 
progress is being made elsewhere. 
No cases of the screwworm of livestock have been found in the southeastern part of 
the United States since the middle of February 1959. Normally tens of thousands of 
cases would have occurred since then. 
Those close to the problem feel that the witchweed can be stopped and eventually 
eradicated. 
The Mexican bean beetle, a most destructive and difficult pest to control, became 
established in California in 1946. Nine years later, and at a cost of some $2-1/2 million, 
it had been eradicated at State and county expense. 
By the intelligent use of interstate quarantines, West Coast States have been kept 
free of such pestsas the Japanese beetle, corn borer, apple maggot, and the plum curculio, 
to name only a few. 
Short of eradication, continued and persistent effort has slowed the spread of the 
pink bollworm, the Japanese beetle, and more recently, the imported fire ant. 
Ways have been found to confine the sweetpotato weevil, the phony peach disease, and 
peach mosaic to a small part of the area they would normally occupy. 
The Mexican fruitfly has been kept out of California and Florida, and from becoming 
a major consideration in the production of citrusin the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. 
We now have procedures for preventing catastrophic outbreaks of grasshoppers 
which, in a number of instances in years past, have prompted joint resolutions in 
Congress and in State Legislatures. 
Outbreaks of the foot-and-mouth disease have been eradicated on nine different 
occasions, thus protecting both our livestock and game animals froma most costly and 
destructive disease. Vesicular exanthema has been eliminated after spreading to 42 
States. And now the Southeast has been freed of the screwworm, 
It is impossible to interpret in dollars and cents what the control or eradication of 
the malarial mosquito, the Medfly, the Texas fever tick, and the screwworm has meant 
to agriculture and to the general economy of the South. 
A major factor in this progress has been the availability of new and effective chemi- 
cals combined with positive thinking and action, Had we waited for all the answers before 
undertaking these programs, we would still be waiting. We learn as we progress--we have 
had to be alert to pitfalls, and to the opportunities for modifying program procedures as 
new information became available. A constant review of operational procedures is essen- 
tial. 
I need not belabor you further about the place chemicals occupy in agriculture. 
In many of his operations a farmer can work independently--what his neighbor does 
has little effect on what happens tohis crop--but one farmer can not harbor an infestation 
of pink bollworm, the screwworm, or Mediterranean fruitfly without creating a situation 
of profound concern to his neighbors. Foot-and-mouth disease, brucellosis, bovine TB, 
vesicular exanthema are not problems to be dealt with on an individual basis. Farmers 
are coming to recognize this and have turned their thinking more and more in the direction 
of animal disease and pest control on an area basis. This is a healthy trend--one to be 
encouraged. 
