The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1905-10-21
BUG LOSS A BILLION.
FARMERS SUFFER 70 LARGE
* EXTENT FROM PESTS.
Agricultural Department Gives Re-
sects-cinch Bug Ravages Of In: =:
- sscts-chinch Bug Il Most
! >, Costly Of All,

WaSnlngtOn.-Ine value or the an
nual agricultural products OF the Unit
ed States is approximately $1,000, 000,-
600, According to the, yearbook OF the
department of agriculture damage to
the minimum amount Of $29S, oOO, 900 is
done to these crops each year by IA of
the most important insect pests.
There is scarcely an article grown on
our farms that has no insect enemy,
and while some of the crops are made
to bear a much heavier loss than the
others. practically all of them must
pay tribute to some. extent. The figures
of the department are admittedly very
conservative, and, if the damage done
by all pernicious insects to ANNA
were added, the annual drain on the
farmers of the country will easily foot
UP to fully half a billion dollars.
The cinch bug causes greater loss
than any of the other insects which
prey on the better-known agricultural
products. The minimum damage done
~ it may be safely placed at So, 000,-
600, according to the department. Mos
of this falls on the wheat raisers of the
country, as the cinch bug. while it also
attacks other plants, is particularly
fond of wheat, and is usually found in
the wheat fields in the greatest pro-
fusion in periods of drought.
In addition to this insect, wheat has
a very destructive enemy in the Hes
sian fly, the annual damage caused by
which is placed at $4OOO0,O00. Worms
attack the roots of the young corn
plant, and, later. the young ears, bring
ing about yearly loss of something
like $40,000,000 also. The more impor-
tant cereals, according to c. L. Marlatt,
assistant chief of the bureau of ento-
mology, who is the author of an inter-
esting chapter on crop pests which will
appear in the yearbook, are damaged
not less than 100000 every ear
through the operations of bugs and
worms Of various kinds.
Cotton, the south's great staple, loses
at least $5O,000,O0O per year as the re-
suit of the ravages of various pests. In
fact, report issued by the census bu-
reau little more than year ago was
to the effect that one insect alone-the
dreaded boil weevil-cost the farmers
of Texas nearly $5O,000,000 during the
previous season, but the department of
agriculture is of the opinion that this
estimate is excessive, and that the total
loss Of all the cotton-growing states
through the operations of all the in
sects which prey on cotton is not large
ly in excess of the sum named. =
The boil .weevil is at present con-
fined to Texas and to the adjacent por-
tons of Louisiana, but it is steadily
moving northward and eastward, and
the government experts do not hesitate
to say that the chances of exterminat-
ing it, or even checking it, are ex-
tremely remote. A recent official re-
port expressed the opinion that, when
the weevil shall have spread all over
the cotton-growing area Of the country,
as it bids fair to do in 10 or 20 years,
judging from its past rate of progress.
it will be capable of causing an annual
loss Of $3.50, 900, 900, which is about hall
the total value of years crop of cot
ton under normal conditions. In ad.
dition to the boil weevil, cotton is at
tackled by many other insects, includ-
ing the boil worm and the leaf worm