BUREAU OF PLANT QUARANTINE 67 
CERTIFICATION FOR EXPORT 
The demand for certification for export has continued to increase from year to 
year. During the fiscal year 1934, 7,222 shipments including 2,720,474 contain- 
ers, were inspected and certified. Certificates were issued at 23 ports and covered 
37 different commodities which were exported to 53 foreign countries. 
Some of the more important commodities inspected and certified were: Apples, 
3,212 shipments, consisting of 1,453,108 boxes, 76,957 barrels, and 125,028 
baskets; pears, 1,255 shipments, consisting of 600,572 boxes, 145 barrels, and 
2,608 baskets; potatoes, 707 shipments, consisting of 115,795 bags, 8,857 barrels, 
and 1,221 crates and boxes. 
TECHNOLOGICAL DIVISION 
Cooperative work on problems of sterilization and treatment of plants and 
plant products, much of it being a continuation of work already under way in 
the previous fiscal year, was carried on with other divisions and projects of the 
Bureau. Considerable construction work was taken up under the Public Works 
Administration appropriations and supervised by members of this organization. 
A cottonseed sterilizer, designed in the spring of 1933, for treatment of cotton- 
seed for pink bollworm larvae, was put into operation on a commercial basis at 
three gins in Florida during the season of 1933. In this machine, the seed is 
heated by conditioned air, the heat being furnished by steam or by means of a 
vaporizing burner. In the three machines installed in Florida, steam was used 
as a source of heat in all cases. The machine has a capacity of about \} : z tons 
of seed per hour, and during the season approximately 1,000 tons of cottonseed 
were sterilized by this method with these machines. A patent has been applied 
for on both the process and apparatus. 
The fumigation of baled cotton at atmospheric pressures was studied, and it 
was found that by spacing the bales from 4 to 6 inches apart it was possible to 
kill any pink bollworm present in seeds in the cotton bale to a depth of 3 inches, 
even when the temperatures were as low as 50° F., with a dosage of 3 ounces 
of hydrocyanic acid per 100 cubic feet of chamber space, including the space 
occupied by the bales. This treatment is therefore effective for cotton which is 
compressed, as the survival of pink bollworm in compressed bales is practically 
all in the outer 3 inches of the bale. 
Analyses of soil for lead arsenate in plots of growing plants in the Japanese 
beetle infested area were made during April and May. In this work, soil from 
701 plots of growing plants, plunging frames, or heeling-in areas in 18 nurseries 
located in Pennsylvania and New Jersey was analyzed. In all, 851 samples 
were taken and i,702 analyses made. Of these plots, 251 required additional 
lead arsenate to bring the concentration up to 1,500 pounds in the first 3 acre- 
inches, while in the remaining 450 plots no lead arsenate was required to main- 
tain the plots in a certified status. The total area of the plots of which the 
analyses were made was 4,948,884 square feet, of which 1,726,608 square feet 
required additional lead arsenate to bring it up to the required concentration in 
the first 3 acre-inches. In all, 12,864 pounds of lead arsenate would be required. 
A series of experiments was carried out in which the lead arsenate content of 
the upper 3 inches of soil in 16 nursery plots of various soil types was determined 
on six occasions at intervals of about a month. From these data no consistent 
rate of decrease in the lead arsenate content in the upper 3 inches of soil was 
evident. The proper time for sampling soil for these control analyses is thus 
apparently just before it is necessary to apply the treatment. 
In a comparison of the adhesiveness of (a) lead arsenate with fish oil added, 
and (6) lead oleate-coated lead arsenate, as sprays for Japanese beetle, it was 
found that a much larger quantity of the insecticide was present on the leaves 
immediately after they had been sprayed with the fish-oil mixture and that it 
adhered better, as shown by analysis after 2 or 3 weeks. 
A new house for the fumigation of freight cars was constructed at Brownsville, 
Tex., to replace the one destroyed in September 1933. Plans and specifications 
for the construction of this house and for 13 other projects on the Mexican border 
on funds provided by the Public Works Administration were prepared and the 
work supervised. These projects included new steel gastight doors at Laredo 
and El Paso, Tex., and rerooting the houses at Eagle La— and El Pa80 
The installation of equipment for use of volatilized gas in fumigation at Eagle 
Pass and El Paso, fencing all fumigation houses, and building a retaining wall 
for diversion of flood waters at Nogales, An/., wen- alBo accomplished. Pari of 
the work was done by contract and part by force account. All projects except 
