The Holly chieftain., 1908-06-12
PESTS COST UNITED STATES
SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION
DOLLARS PER ANNUM.
FOUGHT BY SCIENCE
MILLioNS OF DOLLARS SAVED BY
NATIONAL AND STATE
ENToMoLoGl

1t will probably startle the average
American citizen to learn that every
year insect pests damage our live
stock and the agricultural products of
our soil to an amount exceeding the
entire expenditures of the national
government, including the pension roll
and the maintenance of the army and
navy. In no other country in the world
do insects impose SO heavy tax on
the products of the farm as in the
United States. writes Louis q. Van
Norman In the American Review of
Reviews for June. A scientific agri-
cultural writer, C. l.. Marlatt, assist
reau Of entomology, estimated a few
years ago that total of more than
$700,OO0000 annual loss due to insect
pests in the United States is below
rather than above the actual damage.
Despite the careful and thorough
work done to eradicate these pests
great damage Is still inflicted by them
Before the cotton worm was studied
and the method of controlling it by
the use of arsenic sprays had become
common knowledge. this plague had
levied a tax Of $50 100000 in bad years
on the cotton crop. This estimate and
those that follow are based on the Of
fetal figures of the Department of
A fnr he oil
the latest statistics available. Much
saving has been effected since then
by the methods of the bureau Of en-
tomology and the state entomologists,
but the aggregate loss is still enor-
nous. A knowledge of the habits and
methods Of controlling or avoiding the
Hessian fly, including improved cul-
tural methods, has resulted in the saw
ing of wheat values to the farmer ag-
gregating from $100,000,OO0 to $780,
100000 annually. The apple crop of
the country Is worth from $4,000. 900
to $S,000,000 more since The as yet in
complete control of the coddling moth
has been generally understood. The
root worm was almost baffled by the
principle Of rotation of corn with oats,
thus saving the corn crop to the ex-
tent Of many millions annually. The
annual losses occasioned to forests
and forest products by insect pests
have been estimated at not less than
$100,000.000, of which s70.OOO,OOO is
damage sustained by the growing tim
ber. The tobacco crop suffers from
insects to the extent of more than
$5,0OO,00O. The white scale would
have completely destroyed the orange
and lemon orchards of California but
for the Introduction OF one of its nat
ural snemies from Australia, while the
control of the Mexican boil weevil has
already saved the farmers of Texas
an enormous sum- and has really made
the continuance of cotton growing pos
sible.
Besides these direct losses enormous
damage is done by insects to cattle
and in the transmission OF disease to
man. The loss in the value of horse,
sheep and cattle products directly
chargeable to insects (the OK warble,
the buffalo gnat and the various biting
flies and ticks) would aggregate, gov
ernment statisticians figure, not less
than $175.000.00O annually. To this
must be added the cost of protection
from insect damage to stores products
and from the noxious mosquito, fly and
other disease bearing insects I'm
doubtedly mosquitoes as carriers of
malaria and yellow fever and flies as
transmitters Of typhoid, occasion the
loss Of another $50,OOO.0OO or $780,
100000 in the form of lessened econ
omic productivity.