BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE 
47 
crop against its most destructive insect enemy, the sweetpotato weevil, 
which thrives in commercial areas of the Gulf Coast States. During 
1944, 1.181 farms in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and 
Texas were cleared of this pest by the cooperation of the Bureau, the 
States, and the growers. Inspection was then extended into other com- 
mercial sections of Louisiana and Texas, where 1,280 additional farms 
were found infested, and control activities are going forward. The 
clean-up of fields after harvest and of seedbeds and storage places is 
effective in combating the weevil. 
MOLE CRICKETS CONTROLLED 
Populations of mole crickets apparently were reduced in the 15 
Florida counties in which a control program was conducted in the 
summer and fall of 1943. Nearly 33.G00 acres of truck-crop plants 
were spread with sodium fluosilicate bait supplied to 3,096 farmers. 
By baiting in the seedbeds and planted fields, farmers were able to 
control the burrowing crickets until the young vegetable plants were 
well rooted. As has been done in the past, the Bureau supplied the 
bait, supervision, and technical assistance, and the State plant board 
transported and distributed the bait to the growers. 
SURVEY BEING MADE FOR GOLDEN NEMATODE OF POTATOES 
The golden nematode of potatoes, Heterodera rostochiensis TVollen- 
weber. was found in a small area on Long Island in 1941. The New 
York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, in cooperation 
with the Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineer- 
ing of the United States Department of Agriculture, conducted a 
survey to delimit the infestation, and the former agenc}' established 
a quarantine on the area, effective March 13, 1944. The source of the 
infestation is not known. The Bureau of Entomology and Plant 
Quarantine, in cooperation with the Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, 
and Agricultural Engineering and with appropriate State agencies, 
in June 1944 began a survey of the more important northern potato 
districts east of the Mississippi River to determine as far as possible 
their status with respect to this potato root parasite. 
PINK BOLLWORM CONTROL AND QUARANTINE ENFORCEMENT 
INSPECTION 
The pink bollworm situation appeared critical because of an increase 
in intensity of infestation in Cameron County, Tex., and spread into 
new areas in Texas and Louisiana. Inspection showed initial in- 
festations in Schleicher, Calhoun. Matagorda, and Brazoria Counties 
in Texas, and in Cameron, Calcasieu, and Jefferson Davis Parishes in 
Louisiana. There was also a marked increase in infestation in Hidalgo 
and Maverick Counties, Tex. In northwestern Texas results were neg- 
ative in all previously known infested counties excopt Tom Green. 
There was an increase in infestation in the Big Bend of Texas over 
the previous season, although it was substantially lower than din ing 
the years of heaviest infestation. The regulated areas of New Mexic o 
and Arizona showed no material changes. Negative findings for a 
number of years made it possible to release from quarantine four 
