-670- 
40 percent. Other fields were infested early in the season with a comparatively 
high population of overwintered leafhoppers, resulting in a high percentage of 
plants in such fields "being infected "by the curly-top disease. Surveys of 
commercial "bean fields in July showed that curly-top injury to "beans was very 
light, ranging from 0 to 13. 5 percent in garden varieties and from 0 to 5*5 per- 
cent in the Great Northern, a dry-bean variety, Pall populations of the beet 
leafhopper in southern Idaho in 1938 were the lowest recorded in the last 5 
years* Fall germination of the fall and winter weed host of the beet leafhopper 
was widespread by the end of October. Woather conditions up to the end of 
January 1939 have been favorable for survival. Overwintered beet leafhoppers 
were found in the Billings, Mont., area early in May, confirming the findings in 
1936 and clearly showing that this insect can survive certain types of winters in 
Montana. In this area the most severe outbreak of curly- top since 1935 occurred. 
A survey of the Yakima Valley, Washington, beet-producing area was made dur- 
ing the first half of June. The beet leafhopper populations varied from an over- 
age of 2?. 5 adults per beet at Prosser to l.l6 at Haybom, Evidently an early move- 
ment of overwintered beet leafhoppers moved into the cultivated area, which 
accounts for the large nymphs present in the fields. The mild winter was favor- 
able for survival of the small plants not harvested, and these ’'volunteer” plants 
were reservoirs of the virus and account for tho severe cases of curly top in a 
few fields, (J. R. Douglass, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, U. S. D.A.) 
SWEETPOTATO WEEVIL 
Surveys for sweetpotato weevil infestations were carried on in 1938 in 
Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas, cooperatively with the pest-control 
officials of these States, Areas in which the production of sweetpotatoes is 
undertaken on a commercial scale and in which the infestations are more or less 
isolated, ropresent the field in which cooperative activities are conducted. To 
attempt eradication in the heavily infested areas along the Gulf coast would prove 
futile under present conditions, it is believed, owing to the prolific growth of 
wild host plants on the coast and nearby islands. Survey work is of two types: 
Spotted survey, where no infestation of the weevil is definitely known to exist; 
and intensive or house-to-house inspection in localities where weevils are found, 
covering a radius of 5 miles of each infested property, A summary of such work 
in the calendar year 1938 is as follows: Alabama — -counties surveyed, 12, counties 
found infested, Baldwin, Mobile; Georgia— counties surveyed, 72, counties found 
infested, Camden, Glynn, Thomas; Mississippi— counties surveyed, 20, counties 
found infested, Amite, Green, Harrison, Jo.ckson, Jeff Davis, Jones, Lawrence, 
Marion, Pearl River, Pike, Stone, Walthall; Texas— counties surveyed, IS, counties 
found infested, Angelina, Cherokee, Gregg, Nacogdoches, Sabine, San Augustine, 
Shelby. The accompanying map shows these counties. (R. A. Sheals , Bureau of 
Entomology and Plant Quarantine, U. S. D. A.) 
■TOBACCO MOTH 
In August and September, 193G, the first serious outbreak of the tobacco 
moth occurred on tobacco farms in North Carolina and Virginia. The first in- 
festations in bulk of cured tobacco in growers* pack houses were observed the 
latter part of August and a survey conducted in September showed that heavy in- 
festations were present over a wide area in Rockingham, Forsyth, and Durham 
Counties, N. C., and in Pittsylvania County, Va. Light infestations were found 
