The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-09-14
SWEET POTATO ROOT WEEvIL.

Now 1t is the sweet pOtatJ crop ol
Florida that is threatened with de-
vastation by the invasion of dc.
ST uctive insect pest. The sweet po-
tl.o root weevil has been f und to
0ccu: il. four widely separated al cas-
in the state and in each locality
where it has been established for
three years or more it has made the
profitable culture of the sweet po-
tato impossible. In fact, in the in
tested localities the farmer finds it
difficult to raise even enough sweet
potatoes for the use of his family.
This menace is being regarded with
the gravest concern by the state
plant board for perhaps no crop in
Florida is of as great Importance in
supplying food to our people. The
poorer class of people, particularly,
look to the sweet potato crop as their
principal food supply. The adoption
by the government of the sweet po-
tato as one of the regular articles in
the menu of our troops also makes
the preservation and increase of the
sweet potato crop one of the most
important steps in the national de-
tense.
The pest is not new to the southern
states, having been known in the
southern portion of Louisiana for the
past twenty years. Experience in
that state and in Texas has shown
that at all infested points within
sixty or seventy miles of the Gulf
coast the pest continues to destroy
practically the entire sweet potato
crop year after year. No satisfactory
measures of controlling it have been
found. There are also infested areas
of greater or less extent in Missis-
sippi, Alabama and Georgia and the
pest is evidently very abundant in
Cuba
State Plant Commissioner Wilmont
Newell has been active for several
months, Investigating the extent of in
tested areas in Florida, the means by
which the weevil is spread to new
localities and in placing before the
plant board plans for stopping its
further spread.
1t has been found, for example, that
shipments of sweet potato tubers and
vines, infested with the weevil, have
been coming into Florida from other
states and sack after sack of infested
potatoes and vines have arrived at
Key West and Tampa on vessels
from Cuba Whenever these infested
shipments have been detected by the
inspectors of the plant board they
have either been sent back or de-
stroyed but it is manifestly impos-
sible for the plant board inspectors
to see every shipment of plants and
potatoes coming into Florida In
such infested shipments lies the
greatest danger of the pest becoming
established in new localities. After
considering this situation in all its
aspects the plant board came to the
conclusion that the Florida farmers
could not be protected against this
pest unless the shipment of sweet
potatoes and plants into the state was
stopped. Accordingly, at its meeting
on August Is, 1917, the board adopt
ed Rule 3d." which prohibits the i'm
portation of sweet potato plants and
vines from all states and countries
While this quarantine will shut off
the steady influx of the weevil-in-
tested material which has been com
ing into the state, it will not work
any hardship en- Florida citizens for
the state always has produced more
sweet potatoes than are needed for
its own use and there is no occasion
to import sweet potatoes. Provision
is made in the new quarantine rule
for the importation of limited amounts
of new or rare varieties under special
permits issued by the plant commits
sioner, Gainesville, Florida.