The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Tower.

No. 514.]

Sir: The department has received a letter from Mr. Hugo Malmedie, claiming to be a citizen of the United States, residing at Bensberg, Germany, which reads as follows:

Would it not be advisable to inform the German Government, that sweet potatoes do not come under their law prohibiting the import of white potatoes?

I have here 2 packages of together about 6½ pounds sweet potatoes as seed at the custom-house office, and they refuse to follow them out on account of quest (?) law.

The law here is against the potato bug, with which our sweet potato has nothing to do.

In relation to this communication the Secretary of Agriculture informs this department as follows:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 2d instant, informing this department of the receipt of a letter from a correspondent in Bensberg, Germany, protesting against the prohibition of importation into Germany of American sweet potatoes. In reply I beg leave to respectfully inform you that the so-called “potato bug,” or, as it is better known, the “Colorado potato beetle” (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) never, under any circumstances, breeds on sweet potato, nor could it subsist for any length of time on that plant. It is practically restricted to the genus Solanum, although it occasionally attacks related species of Solanaceӕ when the normal food is lacking. (Sweet potatoes do not belong to the Solanaceӕ, but to a very distinct family, Convolvulaceӕ.

The grounds upon which your correspondent bases his protest, i. e., the immunity of sweet potatoes from the potato bug, are therefore scientifically well founded.

You are instructed to investigate this matter, and, in case the facts as ascertained shall warrant, to make suitable representations to the German Government, with a view of securing the removal of any restrictions on the importation of American sweet potatoes.

I am, etc.,

Robert Bacon.