The pioneer-review. [volume] (Philip, Haakon County, S.D.) 1920-current, 1922-04-06
PLEADS BEFORE SENATE
FOR FEDERAL AID TO
FIGHT GRAIN RUS

In 1920 South Dakota lost about
100000 bushels Of wheat, $500.
600 bushels Of oats and 5000
bushels Of barley as a result Ct
black stem rust, testified w s.
Hill. president of TIE South Da-
kota Farm Bureau, this week be-
fore the senate subcommittee Oh
agriculture in Washington Mr.
Hill asserted that although in
1919 the South Dakota legislature
Ipassed law making il d rllsde-
meanor to harbor comron barber
ry bushes, yet further funds are
necessary to supplement the ciuca-
tlonal work if the bushes are t.
be eradicated | do not believe that
our farmers generally realize that
the comomn barberry bush is the
necessary link in the life OF the
fungi which produces the rust, nor
do they recognize the push whom
they see it.
Mr.. Hill was one of committee
which was in Washington to urge
that federal appropriation be in
creased from Sl47,000 to $4,000
annually for the next three years
to eliminate the barberry ana
thereby save farmers from terrific
losses 1t was shown that at the
present rate with which the work
is being conducted, it will take
about II years u c.csn up tic bar
berry bushes in the Is grain states
of the middle west which lose an
average Of 125,000,O00 bushels Of
grain each year. The other mem
bers Of the committee were: J. F.
Reed. president of the Minnesota,
Farm Bureau; {. w. Huus, presi-
dent of the Iowa Fam Bureaus
Harrison Fuller. secretary Of the
conference for prevention Of gram
rust; DR.. f. c. Stakeman Of the
University Farm, St. Paul; Gray
Silver, Washington Representative
Of the American Farm Bureau fed
Grafton; Senator G.. A. Rawson Of
Iowa; Senator Frank b. Kellogg OF
Minnesota; Representative Halvor
Steenereson of Minnesota and Rep
resentative William Williamson II
South Dakota.
Representative Williamson Of
South Dakota testified that he had
given particular attention TO the
spread Of wheat rust by mems Of
barberry bushes bat that he had
vet to find or recognize the plant
Il believe many farmers aic IN the
same predicament as am, so
they should be heDed to locate
the plant for | Understand there
are hundreds Of Thousand; of them
in my own state. The department.
Of agriculture claims that there
is not farm in the state that is
removed more than Is mll,s frpIl
barberry bushes.
Arguments were made to the eff
feet that it is urgently necessary
that this menace to the whea. crop
be removed in the near future for
the barbarry in the grain states is
now growing wild and spreading
rapidly. The witnesses asserted
that the spores do not conf.lc
themselves: to state lines. but
have been found by airplane as
high as 10000 feet in the ali; that
a single bush may infect 100 squarc
miles or more Of grain growing
territory and that unless the plant
is dug out more rapidly the whole
wheat growing area I the nation
is jeopardized.
DR.. Stakeman Of Minnesota. an
authority on rust. said thai the
barberry bush is becoming 4 wild
plant in the central west in tie
wheat belt. 1t was first introduced
into this country as an ornamental
shrub and cultivated to some ex-
tent for berries The colonial
states found it necessary - Ieais-
late against it because of spread
of rust A survey covering $1,000
square miles made by the rcEart-
ment of agriculture in the west
ern grain states has located thus
far more than 5,S00000 bushes. In
Colorado it found $4,000; In Hin
DIS $4,000; in Indiana $4,000; in
Iowa 731 900; in Michigan 171,000;
in Montana $500; in Nebraska 49,
900; in North Dakota $4,000; in
South Dakota $4,000; in Wisconsin
3,048,000 and in Wyoming 1000.
Gray Silver, Washington repres-
entative Of the American Farm Blu
reau federation. assured the COM
mitee that the federation is very
much interested in furthering the
work of barberry eradication and
favors a larger Appropriation for
that nurpoca