BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE 63 
were also taken at nurseries in 14 States that had received shipments 
from foreign countries known to be infested with the golden nematode. 
Soil samples were processed to detect cysts of the golden nematode 
at a headquarters laboratory on Long Island and at 17 temporary 
sublaboratories scattered through the potato-producing sections of the 
United States. An important piece of equipment in each laboratory 
is a mechanical soil washer. With the assistance of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, this washer was 
redesigned into a lightweight portable machine that operates at a 
lower cost and with greater efficiency. 
Regulatory measures function with Federal-State participation 
Potato growers on Long Island withheld 2,377 acres of infested 
land from potato and tomato production under the Federal-State 
compensation program for the 1950 crop year. Federal payments 
were limited to lands owned and operated by growers. The State of 
New York paid an equal per-acre compensation on such lands and 
assumed all responsibility for compensation on rented lands. 
Bureau inspectors cooperated in the enforcement of the New York 
State golden nematode quarantine. This included supervision of the 
movement of nearly 270,000 bushels of Irish potatoes and the trans- 
portation of 34,000 cubic yards of topsoil. 
Chemical treatments were applied in 68 infested nurseries and 
plant-growing establishments. 
Experimental work continued in cooperation with the Bureau of 
Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering and the New 
York State College of Agriculture for the purpose of developing 
improved control methods, treating procedures, and equipment. 
Further Survey for Potato Rot Nematode in Northwest 
Further study of specimens collected in the survey on potato rot 
nematode early in 1950 resulted in the tentative determination as the 
potato rot nematode {Ditylenchus destructor Thorne) of a single 
specimen taken in the important bulb-growing area near Mount Ver- 
non, Wash. In an effort to obtain additional specimens for positive 
determination, further surveys were made in the overlapping potato- 
and bulb-growing sections of Washington and Oregon, both during 
and after the 1950 potato harvest. None of the specimens collected in 
the follow-up survey were infested with this nematode. 
Because most Washington-grown potatoes are marketed immedi- 
ately after harvest, the survey in that State was made during the peak 
of the harvest, with a supplemental inspection in January 1951 of a 
few potatoes and iris bulbs in storage. Potatoes from 2,563 of the 
3,977 acres planted to potatoes in 11 counties were inspected. 
The Oregon survey was also made in January in the potato- and 
bulb-growing sections around Portland, where potatoes from 1,497 
acres in five counties were inspected. 
Specimens of potatoes were taken at 55 places in the two States 
for subsequent examination by nematologists of the Bureau of Plant 
Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering. The surveys were 
made in cooperation with State agencies. 
