P.W.A., C.W.A., AND A.A.A. FUNDS APPLICABLE UNDER THIS HEADING (1) $2,950 from the Federal Emergency Administration for Public Works.— The Public Works Administration has allotted $2,950 for physical improvements at the following stations: (a) $1,500 for the construction of an insectary, garage, and fence at Uvalde, Tex. (b) $1,100 for the construction of an insectary, storage sheds, and fence at Sonora, Tex. (c) $100 for the construction of insect cages at Savannah, Ga. (d) $200 for the construction of insect cages at Menard, Tex. (e) $50 for the construction of chicken enclosures at Takoma Park, Md. (2) $1,000 from the Agricultural Adjustment Administration.—The Agricultural Adjustment Administration, in the interest of extension of markets and reduction of surplus crops of certain grades of tobacco, has allotted $1,000 for testing various insecticides containing nicotine to determine their effectiveness and possible use in the control of poultry pests. This money supplements experimental work under way at Dallas, Tex., and Takoma Park, Md. (3) $78,625 from the Civil Works Administration for general administrative expenses for two C.W.A. projects as follows: (a) $73,250 to provide for necessary administrative expenses and supervision of Civil Works projects for control of pest mosquitoes. This Civil Works project is carried on under the direction of the Bureau in cooperation with appropriate, responsible officers in 36 States at an estimated cost of $3,388,700. It is estimated that this activity will provide employment for 25,645 men and involve expenditures amounting to $250,400 for items other than labor. (b) $5,375 for necessary administrative expenses in the supervision of a project on control of ticks which carry human diseases. This project is under the direction of the Bureau and carried on in the District of Columbia, and in cooperation with the States of Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. The estimated cost is $79,500. It is anticipated that this work will provide employment for 369 men and involve expenditures for items other than labor amounting to $8,375. Mr. THURSTON. Doctor, we know that the mosquito is a carrier of yellow fever. Could bees transmit a blight or anything that is injurious to plant life? Mr. STRONG. Oh, yes; they could carry pear blight from one tree to another. A disease of that kind that could be carried from one place to another can be carried by bees. I think that is absolutely true of the pear blight, and I thing it was true somewhat of citrus canker: was it not. Dr. Kellerman? Dr. KELLERMAN. Yes, sir. INVESTIGATION OF ANTS Mr. SANDLIN. I notice in this item that there is a decrease of $5,765, the amount allotted to special studies on the Argentine ant. Have you completed that work? Mr. STRONG. We completed the survey that we were making in the southern States, which was undertaken for the purpose of determination of the possibility of the extermination of the Argentine ant. As you know, there has been a lot of work done in the South in eradication, and in Mississippi in particular there have been pretty large areas where the ant has been completely exterminated. Mr. SANDLIN. They know how to do it now? Mr. STRONG. Yes; they know pretty well how to do it. Mr. STRONG. There had never been any survey made of the area that was infested, and our job was to try, with this amount of money, to find out what the limit of the infestation might be, what the area might be, and also, if possible, to make any suggestions for improvements in the control methods. There is very little work done on ants as such. Mr. HART. Take these common ants that you find on the lawn; what are those? Mr. STRONG. They may be any one of a number of different species. Do you know what they would be up in Michigan, Mr. Rohwer? Mr. ROHWER. It is probably what they call the pavement ant, which was introduced into the United States many years ago. It is cosmopolitan; it occurs all over the world. Mr. HART. How do you get rid of them? Mr. ROHWER. When the nest can be located it is very easy to exterminate the ant by putting in a number of different types of poison, like carbon disulphide; just pouring a tablespoonful or two tablespoonfuls down in the colony and covering it up with a damp cloth, being careful to keep fire away, because it is an explosive gas. It is heavier than air, and it penetrates down into all the galleries in the nest, and is very effective in destroying the ants. Mr. THURSTON. Is that the same treatment that you administer to golf courses? Mr. ROHWER. They use it so some extent in golf courses; yes. HOUSEHOLD INSECTS Mr. SANDLIN. You have an estimate of $13,145 for household insects. Mr. STRONG. Yes, sir. That is for a study of household insectsclothes moths, ants, and so on-that has been transferred from this Division of Household and Stored Products Insects to the Division of Insects Affecting Man and Animals. It is work that we are doing at this time. That was simply a realinement of the work in the Bureau of Entomology. INSECTS AFFECTING CATTLE Mr. SANDLIN. What about the insects affecting cattle? Mr. STRONG. We are studying insects affecting cattle in cooperation with the State people at Ames, Iowa, on control of cattle grubs, and we are doing some work in the South on insects affecting cattle, at Menard, Tex., and also at Dallas. INSECTS AFFECTING SHEEP AND GOATS Mr. SANDLIN. What about the sheep and goats? Mr. STRONG. These laboratories at these various points are taking into account all these insects that affect the various animals, including the cattle insects and the sheep and goat insects. In Sonora, Tex., we are studying the biology and control of the sheephead bot and the goat louse and the scab of goats, and there comes in there also the study of the screw worms. INSECTS AFFECTING POULTRY AND BIRDS Then work is being done on insects affecting poultry and birds at Uvalde, Tex., and in certain of the other laboratories. SAND FLIES Then we are carrying on studies of sand flies and also investigating the biology and control of mosquitoes in the Northwestern States. Mr. SANDLIN. What are they doing with the sand fly? That was down in South Carolina sometime ago. Mr. STRONG. Yes; and in Georgia. They are making studies there on diking, where the salt water comes up into the fresh water, and then putting a spray around there after the dike is put in. Mr. SANDLIN. Do they have much success in controlling that? Mr. STRONG. Yes, sir; there is real promise there. There is a whole lot still to be done on it, though. That is a work that is very popular with the people along the coast. Some of those summer resorts have had an especially bad time with the sand flies. I have forgotten just the location, but some man was in to see me the other day and said that they had had to almost entirely abandon a large hotel proposition that they had in the South on account of sand flies. It was a hotel on the coast. C.W.A. FUNDS Mr. SANDLIN. Under this item I notice you have $78,625 from the Civil Works Administration for general administrative expenses for two projects. Mr. STRONG. Of that amount, $73,250 was to provide for supervision of the Civil Works project for the control of salt-marsh mosquitoes. We are also doing some work on the fresh-water mosquitoes. The Civil Works Administration allotted something over three and a quarter million dollars for work on mosquitoes in some 32 or 33 States. Of course, that was entirely for the employment of labor for drainage, cleaning out canals, and so on. This money was allotted to us for supervision and for the travel of the supervisors who are taking care of the work. The $5,375 was for supervision of a project which had for its purpose the cleaning up of areas where ticks were located which carry human diseases. Some of that was done here in the District of Columbia, some out in Maryland, and some in Virginia and Delaware. All the labor was furnished by the Civil Works Administration. HOUSEHOLD AND STORED PRODUCTS INSECTS Mr. SANDLIN. The item for household and stored products insects is not carried in the bill this year? Mr. STRONG. That is the division that I mentioned yesterday, which has been split up and the work assigned to other divisions in the bureau. The work is still being continued, but not under this heading. 35962-34-26 The only part of the 1933 and 1934 appropriations listed in the Budget schedule under this head is the total of estimated savings and unobligated balances. Obligations are included under the other subappropriations to which the activities of this division are to be assigned upon its discontinuance. INSECT PEST SURVEY AND IDENTIFICATION Mr. SANDLIN. The next item is: Insect pest survey and identification: For the identification and classification of insects, including taxonomic, morphological, and related phases of insect pest control, the importation and exchange of useful insects, and the maintenance of an insect pest survey for the collection and dissemination of information to Federal, State, and other agencies concerned with insect pest control, $121,616. Mr. STRONG. The following is presented in justification of this item: 9.884 Decrease, Budget 1935, compared with estimated obligations, 1934--- Impoundment of 6% percent of 15-percent pay cut.. Further reduction in working funds for 1935. 5 percent salary restoration_____. The reduction of $16.566 in working funds for 1935 includes: -$9,052 -21, 448 -16, 566 +6, 682 -40, 384 (a) A decrease of $5,609 which contemplates the discontinuance of special bioclimatic studies on insects and the suspending of the special activity concerned with investigations on diseases of insects. (b) A decrease of $1,777 on insect pest survey.-This decrease contemplates reduction in clerical assistance in the assembling and distributing information regarding the occurrence and relative abundance of insect pests 1 The appropriation item "Household and stored products insects" included in the act making appropriations for the fiscal year 1934 is not included in the proposed Budget estimates. The activities previously authorized and carried on under this item are, however, provided for in the estimates and have been distributed to the appropriation items concerned with the control of insects which attack the crop which produces the product. It is believed that this type of organization will be more effective. The injury that becomes apparent in many products after they have entered storage or trade channels is due to infestation in the field. The activities carried on under the item "Household and stored product insects" are distributed as follows: (1) Investigations on insects attacking dried-fruit insects to "Fruit insects." (2) Investigations on insects attacking wood products to "Forest insects." (3) Investigations on insects attacking tobacco in storage, stored peas, and stored beans, to "Truck crop insects." (4) Investigations on insects attacking stored grain to "Cereal and forage insects." (5) Investigations on household and related insects to "Insects affecting men and animals." supplied by entomologists located in the field through cooperative arrangements with State officials or other agencies. (c) A decrease of $9,180 which contemplates the discontinuance of the work carried on by extension specialists in entomology. CHANGE IN LANGUAGE The insertion of the words "Insect Pest Survey and the elimination of the words "and classification of insects" in the title proposed in the Budget estimate is in the interest of a clear designation of the activities provided for under this appropriation. The elimination of the word "toxicological" in the language proposed in the Budget estimate is recommended because the activities for determining the toxicity of insecticides, etc., are transferred to the proposed item "Control Investigations." The insertion of the word "morphological" in the language proposed in the Budget estimates is recommended to more adequately explain activities necessary in connection with the identification and classification of insects, which are now and have been carried on under this item. WORK DONE UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION The funds supplied under this appropriation provide for investigations on basic subjects necessary for the conduct of much of the Bureau's work and include 1. The identification, classification, and description of insects in both adult and immature stages. These functions are of a continuing and service nature and of vital importance to economic entomology. Accurate and authoritative information on the identity and relationships of insects is required in the daily work concerned with plant and animal quarantines, control activities and research problems. The demand from other offices of the Bureau, State entomologists, etc., for information and assistance of this type sorely taxes the limited number of specialists available. 2. Investigations on the anatomy and structure of insects necessary for (a) the proper understanding of characters by which the hundreds of thousand of kinds are distinguished and (b) the interpretation of the reactions to poisons, etc. 3. The assembling information and coordination investigations dealing with the collection, distribution or exchange of predaceous or parasitic insects which may be useful in the control of injurious pests. 4 The collecting, recording, analyzing, and maintaining permanent records on insect abundance and damage, and distribution to cooperating State officials, etc., of information on current insect conditions. Mr. STRONG. The Insect Pest Survey is a mimeographed publication that we issue that indicates the prevalence and distribution of the insects that the State experiment stations and farmers are concerned with. For instance, it gives up-to-date information on the possibilities of a chinch-bug outbreak, where the bugs are located, and what progress they are making in spread, and so on. The identification part of the work is the work that is done by specialists that are located in the National Museum. Their work is to study the characters of insects and classify them by name and order, and it is really the work on which all of our eradication work and all of our inspection work depends. Of course, if we are going to do anything with an insect, we have to know what one it is, and these men are busy all the time on the different groups of insects, identifying those that are sent in not only by Federal people but by State experiment stations and colleges of agriculture as well. It is a tremendously important piece of work for the whole field of entomology. Mr. SANDLIN. They work under your direction? Mr. STRONG. Yes, sir. |