So we do have a very intense interest in all of these nematodes, and so forth, that infest the soil.

Once the soybean cyst nematode would get into nursery soils, we know immediately that nurserymen would be quarantined or very severely regulated in the movement of their commodity to other sections of the country which are free.

So we have an intense interest in title II, also.

There is one other item I do want to mention in another capacity. I will wear another hat, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

I want to go back to your questions in regard to No. 1, which starts on the bottom of page 1 and page 2 of Dr. Clarkson's testimony. This bill will give authority, which the Department has never had, of regulating the movement of plant pests per se.

In explanation of my second hat that I wear, I might say that I used to be, for many, many years, a plant pathologist at Kansas State and later on at Rutgers before I came down here 1912 years ago.

As a plant pathologist, I could introduce, and I did, in my research work, cultures of fungi which are known to be highly parasitic, because I was engaged in a study at the time of certain diseases of crops, both in Kansas and in New Jersey, and I had to have, I thought I had to have these cultures for the expediting of this research work.

I was permitted to bring those in without regulation. A good example that I thought probably Dr. Popham would mention was the accidental introduction of gypsy moth in New England against which now there is on the way a terrific eradication program.

It was brought in here about 90 years ago, as I recall, by an individual who thought he had a better worm to make silk. It escaped from his laboratories and the result is now we are engaged in the very expensive eradication program. I am convinced it will be successful, but it has been a costly thing.

I am convinced, if the Department of Agriculture had this authority and with our knowledge now of the pest distribution in other countries, that that would never have been permitted to come in here.

I serve still in my professional association on their committee on plant quarantines and regulatory work. This committee has had this matter up at various times and has approved of this authority, which is now going to be granted if this bill becomes law, of the Department of Agriculture in regulating the international and the interstate movement of these plant pests per se. So I would say that the Department is not alone in this request for this additional authority.

Mr. Chairman, we think it is a good bill, and we would support it in the hope that it will soon travel through the Halls of Congress and get on the President's desk for his signature. It does a lot of things that should have been done, I think, years ago.

I appreciate the opportunity being given me this morning of expressing these thoughts of approval of the general tenor of this bill. Mr. ABERNETHY. We certainly appreciate your appearance, Dr. White, and the support of your industry, I am sure, will enhance the opportunity of passage of the bill.

Are there any questions, gentlemen?

If not, we want to thank you, Dr. White, for your coming this morning.

Dr. WHITE. Thank you, sir.

Mr. ABERNETHY. Mr. Reporter, at this point in the record I would like to insert a statement from the Honorable Carl Elliott, who is a Representative in Congress from the State of Alabama.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

STATEMENT OF CARL ELLIOTT, SEVENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF ALABAMA Mr. Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity to present a statement in support of my bill, H. R. 5931, to facilitate the control and eradication of the fire ant. H. R. 5931 proposes to amend section 102 of the Department of Agriculture Organic Act of 1944 by giving the Secretary of Agriculture the specific authority to initiate control programs for the imported fire ant.

The fire ant is now present in over 50 Alabama counties, and in most of the Southern States. They are an extremely serious pest on many Alabama farms, and cause extensive damage wherever they exist.

The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries estimate that the fire ant has already caused $25 million worth of damage in the State of Alabama. Mr. G. H. Blake, Jr., assistant entomologist, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, Ala., reported in Highlights of Agricultural Research (vol. 3, No. 3, fall 1956): "The fire ant is of economic importance for these reasons: (1) It frequently attacks germinating seed and young, tender plants; (2) it builds unsightly mounds that can damage farm machinery; (3) it interferes with harvest of crops; and (4) its sting causes extreme irritation and may result in death. In fields planted to row crops, the ants sting persons harvesting such crops as strawberries and potatoes. In other fields both the ant and mounds cause concern. The dried mounds can damage cutter bars of mowers and combines. Silage-harvesting machines and combines become clogged with the moist soil from the mounds to the extent that the machines must be stopped for cleaning. The ants attack the operators as they clean machinery."

In recent months, the fire ant has spread over the countryside at a very rapid rate. Individual farmers have, along with the help provided by the State extension service, attempted to control the problem, but the assistance of the United States Department of Agriculture is now needed. There is ample precedent for a program of this type. The Department has, over a period of many years, conducted programs for the control of various pests.

I sincerely hope and I strongly urge that this committee give its early approval to legislation that will give the Department of Agriculture the authority to assist our farmers in combating this pest which threatens to engulf the entire Southland.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. ABERNETHY. We will hear from Mr. Roberts.

STATEMENT OF HON. KENNETH ROBERTS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA

Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to appear here in support of the chairman's bill and other bills that have been introduced in connection with what I believe to be a real menace to agriculture in my State and in about 10 or more other Southern and Southeastern States.

I have no prepared statement, but I certainly feel that the time has come when some emergency action must be taken if we are to control this Argentine fire ant.

Now, as I understand it, this menace is not anything new, having been in our State and in our southland for many years, but I think that it was some time after this ant had been discovered before it was discovered that he was as vicious or as much of a threat to agriculture as he has now proven to be.

Presently the best figures, and these are not up to date, show that we have a total infestation of 13,305,026 acres out of our total land area of 32,689,920 acres.

Now, I understand that one of the witnesses who will appear here this morning, Dr. Clarkson, from the Department of Agriculture, has other figures which show that the infestation is even greater than the figures which I am giving you.

Presently I think that the greatest danger in the agriculture picture is perhaps to the cattle. It seems that we have the condition that when a calf is dropped near one of these hills that in many cases the calf is stung by these things and results, in many cases, in death before the cattleman can get out to get the calf.

Now I have had resolutions and letters from many of the people down in Alabama. I have a statement from the Alabama Cattlemen's Association. They have adopted a resolution to the effect that this is an emergency situation and they think that some kind of a FederalState program must be worked out in order for us to control it.

One of the difficulties is that the expense of handling this problem is so great as far as the individual farmer is concerned that it is almost prohibitive. We have had estimates ranging anywhere from cost per acre of $2.50 to, in some cases, as high as $5 an acre.

That depends on what you use and how you use it, I suppose.

I believe there are three chemicals they have found that will control this ant, one is dieldrin and one is chlordane, and I thing the other is heptachlor.

You can see how much of an expense that would be.

I think the average cattleman down our way says it takes about 5 acres for him to graze a brood cow and calf and produce.

When you consider adding in anywhere from $15 to $25 for that much poison in controlling this ant, you can see what a tremendous burden it is going to be.

Now, this thing is spreading very fast at this time and between now and May they begin to leave these mounds, the queens do, and swarm and go to the other places and lay eggs and therefore spread this

menace.

I think, also, that it has an interstate aspect because of the fact that we already see it in about 10 States of the Union.

I think Dr. Clarkson will have a map which will show how widespread this is. I think other than possibly one State below the MasonDixon line, there is only one State that is not affected.

Am I correct in that, Dr. Clarkson?

Dr. CLARKSON. Well, measuring it that way, there is no infestation yet in Tennessee.

Mr. ROBERTS. I think I saw a little bit around Memphis.

Dr. CLARKSON. There are a couple of spots in Arkansas, near Tennessee, but in North and South Carolina there are spots. We do not have any shown on Tennessee.

Mr. ROBERTS. I did check, and I thought I saw some on the map in Memphis.

There are at least 10 States I believe that have anywhere from light to heavy infestation.

There is another thing that I think we might well consider in this picture and that is that these things come from Argentina.

And they come from an area in Argentina, if I understand it correctly, that is pretty much the same kind of temperature that we have even in some of our Northern States, and in Western States, so it is in fact

entirely probable that this thing is not going to confine itself to the Southeast, but it will spread to the Far West and perhaps on through the northern and western part of our country.

It was felt the ant is similar to the boll weevil and was something that we just have to live with, but this is a much more serious problem. I have an article stating that these things just a few days ago attacked three airmen out at Maxwell Field and put them in the hospital. This is an article in the Montgomery Advertiser of March 14, 1957, which I would like to submit for the record.

(The article referred to follows:)

[From the Montgomery Advertiser, March 14, 1957]

MAXWELL REPORTS PLAGUE OF FIRE ANTS; THREE IN HOSPITAL

(By Nelson Cole)

Tales of fire ant damage and injury continued to stream in here yesterday, topped by a report from Maxwell Air Force Base that the problem is becoming "very serious" in that area.

Capt. Warren Papin, base information officer, said a recent survey of the base indicated "there are 150,000 fire-ant mounds on this base" averaging 61 per acre. He said 5 people have had severe toxic reactions from the ants' bites "and 3 of them required hospitalization." Numerous small pets have been bitten.

"Our biggest concern isn't the vegetation," he said, "but the base's population. Already a serious threat, if left to multiply these ants could become an extremely dangerous health menace to all of our people," Papin said.

Lt. Col. Neal G. MacEachern, base veterinarian, said mechanical fertilizer distributors will be used to spread insecticide in open areas, but ant mounds in the housing areas will be treated by hand.

Papin said he had become "familiar with the fire-ant situation while stationed in Latin America.

"Down there, the pests will sometimes attack huge animals and kill them with multiple bites. Apparently they are meat eaters since the carcasses were stripped," he said.

He said fire ants actually "bite" instead of "sting" like other insects. "Their little pinchers take a chunk out of the skin and at the same time poison is deposited. Soon the bite festers making a small sore."

He compared the bite's pain to that from the sting of a yellow jacket or

wasp.

Further reports of destruction from fire ants came from cattlemen and farmers. C. T. Fitzpatrick of Empire-Rouse Cleaners said he had “2 and possibly 3 calves killed by these pests and stripped clean.

"The cows apparently dropped the calves on or near the mounds and the ants started attacking them immediately," he said.

"I have heard of a little girl here, but cannot recall the name, who was in the hospital for more than a week with a temperature of 106 after having a reaction to the ants' bites."

Richard H. Arrington, Ramer, cattle farmer, said reports of the damage he had heard "were appalling. Economically, even ignoring the personal danger,

this thing is getting extremely serious."

He said he had heard reports from all over South Alabama “about the damage and many farmers are going to face ruin if we don't do something-soon.”

Mr. ROBERTS. I mentioned the Alabama Cattlemen's Association. I have also had wires and letters from the Farm Bureau group, from various other civic bodies who recognize the tremendous threat throughout Alabama. I would like just for the information of the committee and I am not putting this in the record, but I have some extra copies of newspapers which show what a tremendous threat the fire ant is to us, and I would like to pass those around to the members of the subcommittee, if I may.

Mr. Chairman, that concludes my statement.

Mr. ABERNETHY. Thank you, Mr. Roberts.

Any questions from the members of the committee.
Thank you very much.

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT SIKES, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA

Mr. SIKES. Mr. Chairman, my testimony also deals in particular with the control of the fire ants and therefore is limited to one segment of this measure.

I want to express my own personal appreciation for the consideration that you are giving to this matter.

It is of particular importance to Florida, as it is, I believe, to every Southeastern State. And as Mr. Roberts has pointed out in his testimony, it is a pest that can be expected to spread through the greater part of the Nation.

I believe, Mr. Chairman, that this is something that has very nearly slipped up on the blind side of all of us. We have realized that we have this pest, we realized it was spreading, but it is only in the last year or two that we have begun to recognize the seriousness of the threat to realize how rapidly it is spreading and how serious the infestation is becoming in those areas that are already infested.

We have learned that in order for any control measures to be undertaken, it will be necessary to have authorizing legislation and that will require amendment of existing law.

Therefore, in order that we may undertake a general control program we earnestly and respectfully urge approval of this or similar legislation as soon as possible.

Heretofore the control measures have been almost entirely carried on by individuals, each person working as he thought best or with the information he was able to obtain from his agricultural agencies, but that type of control has been very ineffective.

The pest is spreading and spreading rapidly, and infestations are becoming more and more serious and now it is becoming a threat in particular to livestock production.

Details of the damage to the area of infestation will be provided by expert witnesses from the Department, but I would like to assure this committee that we, in the South, consider this a very serious matter. We greatly need the legislation that is proposed. We earnestly hope you can take action within a short time.

If there are any questions, I would be glad to answer them.

Mr. ABERNETHY. Thank you very much, Bob.

I believe, Mr. Boykin, you wanted to make a statement.

STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK W. BOYKIN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE FIRST DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

Mr. BOYKIN. I have a statement I am going to put in the record. Mr. ABERNETHY. Do you want your statement incorporated now? Mr. BOYKIN. Please.

Mr. ABERNETHY. It will be incorporated in the record at this point.