weevils, to work on ginning, to work on improving textile strength, to work on cleaning, to work on spinning, to treatment of the fibers for crease resistance, and then on down to storage and handling, and
Dr. SHAW. We have all of the work that has to do with the growing of the crop and up through ginning in what we call our farm research area. That includes, the insecticide work, plant breeding, soils, and agricultural engineering research related to cotton.
Then we also have the work on processing and developing of new uses, treatments and processes, modifications, and so on for cotton. Mr. WHITTEN. You mean getting cotton where it is highly in demand and very, very serviceable is not marketing?
Dr. SHAW. The development of new products or new finishes for products, anything that changes the characteristics of cotton, is in our field.
Mr. WHITTEN. We are having trouble with this problem. We have to increase the crease resistance. Those in marketing say, "if we had crease-resistant cotton, it would improve marketing greatly." However, funds have been cut out for that kind of research in this budget, have they not, Mr. Grant?
Mr. GRANT. There is a reduction in the budget for transportation and facilities marketing research of the Agricultural Marketing Service. This research does not involve crease resistance and other quality characteristics, however.
1965 BUDGET DECREASES FOR RESEARCH
Mr. WHITTEN. I think I will ask Mr. Grant at this point in the record to show what reductions are in the budget in the field of research, whether it is in ARS or whether it is in AMS or in this other area. You might also show how long the work had been going on there and what the results have been.
Mr. GRANT. Yes, sir.
(The information requested follows:)
Research reductions budgeted for fiscal year 19651
1. Agricultural Research Service:
Salaries and expenses, research: Completion of work or termination of lower priority research at small field stations--
2. Cooperative State Research Service:
Payments and expenses, payments under sec. 204 (b) of the Agricultural Marketing Act: Payments to the State agricultural experiment sta- tions for marketing research on agricultural products___.
3. Statistical Reporting Service:
Salaries and expenses, consumer surveys------
4. Agricultural Marketing Service:
Marketing research and service: Research on market facility planning and wholesaling and retailing operations, and research on other physical handling of farm products in marketing channels---- Total..
1 Includes all research program reductions proposed in the 1965 budget for the Department of Agriculture exclusive of the Forest Service.
1. Agricultural Research Service: Salaries and expenses, research:
Completion of work or termination of lower priority research at small field stations ($264,000):
Duration Amount of work (years)
$25, 500 Research at Petersburg has demonstrated the usefulness of antioxidants and other feed additives in the feeding of fish and fish waste to mink at high levels without the occurrence of steatitis or yellow-fat disease. Practical diets based on use of sea fish or sea mammals have been de- veloped for blue fox, mink, and marten. Other work has shown the effect of hormones on weight gains in female mink. The station has provided information on fur farming to the Alaskan government and co- operated in the establishment of mink enterprises in Alaska. Infor- mation leading to more efficient fur farming has been disseminated continuously to the fur farm industry in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, and over the United States.
More than 80 publications on research conducted at Glendale have been published. Much of the work has been concerned with management and nutrition of poultry under high-temperature, semiarid conditions. In recent years physiological aspects have been included. Significant contributions have been made with respect to the effect of restricted feeding, water consumption, hatchability, the effect of pelleted diets, and the effect of artificial lighting.
In nutrition studies, the emphasis has been on effect of gossypol content of cottonseed meal on egg quality, effect of alfalfa saponins on chick growth, and requirements of vitamins A and D. Protein require- ments of growing chickens and laying hens under tropical semiarid conditions have been determined. The effect of antibiotics and other feed additives have also been studied. Research was initiated in 1956 to find controls for water-stargrass and other aquatic and ditchbank weeds of drainage systems in the Missis- sippi Valley area. Water-stargrass is no longer a serious problem in the drainage canals of Arkansas having progressively diminished to minimum infestation because of natural ecological changes in the canals during the past few years. A great deal of useful information has been obtained on the botany and physiology of water-stargrass and water primrose, a serious weed in farm ponds and lakes. Information has also been obtained on the use of herbicides as soil treatments to control marginal weeds in farm ponds and on ditchbanks. The information will be of practical value to farmers and others in controlling certain aquatic and ditch bank weeds in the Midsouth.
This station has played a major role in the development of measures for controlling insect pests of importance to the production of cigar tobac- cos for more than 40 years.
One of the best known accomplishments was the early development of poisoned cornmeal baits for control of tobacco budworm, a remedy that has been in use with some modifications for more than 30 years. The laboratory has contributed materially to basic knowledge of the biology of the tobacco hornworm, which was published in the USDA Bulletin 896. The work has been especially useful as background in- formation to guide current studies on nonchemical approaches to the control of this insect. Publication of USDA Circular 639 covering re- search at the station on the control of insects affecting cigar-type tobac- co, has served as a guide to growers of all types of tobacco for more than 20 years.
Other outstanding publications from this research at Quincy include de- scriptions of the stages and life history of the tobacco flea beetle pub- lished in 1925, methods of control of aphids on tobacco published in 1952, and an account of the effects of accumulated DDT and TDE residues in tobacco soils published in 1960.
The station was selected after a thorough survey was made to find a place where boll weevil research could be conducted under heavy in- festations every year and where conditions for its propagation and sur- vival were optimal.
Prior to the era of organic insecticides which began about 1945, much of the progress made in boll weevil control stemmed from the Tallulah Laboratory. The discovery of calcium arsenate as an effective in- secticide for cotton insect control was made at Tallulah and practical methods for its use were worked out there. The development of the airplane as an agricultural implement stemmed directly from research on its use in the application of calcium arsenate there. Much of the machinery for the application of insecticidal dusts to row crops came about as a result of experiments conducted at the station. Research there has contributed materially to the development of control methods for a number of cotton insects other than the boll weevil, among them the cotton aphid, cotton fleahopper, rapid plant bug, tarnished plant bug, and other closely related species, field cricket and several minor pests.
The pioneering work at Tallulah in studying the insect fauna of the upper air by the use of traps mounted on airplanes is of special signifi- cance. It adds a great deal to our knowledge of the dispersal of in- jurious insect pests. This work, conducted from 1926 to 1931 was published as Technical Bulletin 673.
Particularly outstanding in recent years has been the research conducted at Tallulah on thrip control, early season boll weevil control, and diapause control in the fall of the year.
Insects and spider mites affecting cotton.
Completion of work or termination of lower priority research at small field stations ($264,000)-Continued
Gully control procedures.
Mitchell (Scotts Bluff), Nebr.. Irrigation management practices, and
control of wind, water, and soil movement.
A better understanding of the hydrologic and soil physical factors involved in the rather special type of gully formation that occurred in the Connecticut River areas has been provided. Several techniques of gully head control through improved surface water management have been developed and are available for field testing and evaluation by action agencies and farmers. The research phase of these particular studies is thus essentially complete. 13, 500 Cooperative studies of whiteclover diseases occurring in New Hampshire and other parts of New England indicate a large number of pathogens affecting leaves, petioles, stolons, roots, seed, or flowers of whiteclover. 39 different fungi have been found, including 4 previously unreported. Clover phyllody was shown to be related to potato culture. Taproots of white clover were found seldom to survive more than 24 to 26 months; the most frequently isolated fungus from diseased roots was Fusarium oxysporum. Clover root curculio was found to cause appreciable injury to white clover taproots. Nematode injury was found to be indis- tinguishable from lesions caused by initial invasion of fungi. The predominant nematode species found was the stylet nematode. Methyl bromide gave good nematode control.
Studies with Curvularia trifolium, casual agent of a leaf blight, included host range and identification of 32 resistant plants among 14,000 white clover seedlings. Current work includes development of a laboratory technique for screening for resistance to pepper spot fungus, screening populations for cold tolerance, and effects of management on develop- ment of root rots.
19, 500 Early studies concerned the fertilizer management problems involved in the dryland production of alfalfa, cotton, and sorghum in New Mexico. Many of the current recommendations for fertility management are based on these studies.
Amount for such re- search at
other locations
has come out of these studies. Recommended irrigation practices based on these results are widely used by farmers in that area. Similar studies concerning the engineering problems of surface irrigation to meet and control problems of wind and water erosion and to provide improved efficiency of irrigation water use have resulted in improved practices now widely used in the applicable area.
Preliminary work on chemical fallow techniques has also had some application in the area.
11,000 Development of methods of detection and survey for European chafer as an aid for control operations:
(1) Developed an attractant consisting of a 3:1 mixture of Java citronella oil and eugenol as a lure for the European chafer. (2) Proved value of butyl sorbate as a lure for European chafer, especially for use in areas where Japanese beetle occurs, since it does not attract the latter insect as does the citronella-eugenol mixture.
(3) Demonstrated the value of black light traps for European chafer survey purposes.
Biological control of the European chafer:
(1) Determined virulence of different strains of milky disease caused by Bacillus popilliae and B. lentimorbus to European chafer grubs and their effectiveness in small and large scale field plots and by laboratory assays. Initiated and conducted basic studies to increase infectivity of milky disease spores, and to determine method by which they iuvade chafer grubs.
(2) Colonized introduced parasites of European chafer and deter- mined that their failure to become established is very likely due to lack of synchronization of their life histories with that of the chafer under New York conditions.
Development of packinghouse treatments to permit movement of nursery stock and related products from infested to uninfested areas under the European chafer quarantine. The methods developed were adopted by the Plant Pest Control Division and State regulatory agencies for movement of all types of products involved, including potting soil, potted plants, and balled and burlapped and bareroot nursery stock.
Many cotton varieties, strains, species, interspecific hybrids and other cotton relatives have been evaluated for possible resistance to several insects affecting cotton. There have been 1 or 2 promising leads de- veloped as a result of this work. In 1963, evaluation was made on a fairly extensive scale of the insect preference patterns on several selec- tions. 1 selection for which certain insects, particularly the cabbage looper and armyworms, showed little preference is nectarless cotton. This unusual morphological character was developed at another location.
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