The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-08-30
Especial to The Gate City.l

Especial to The Gate City.l
WASHINGTON Aug. 29.-Although
the average person may be of the
opinion that this country is at peace
with the world and with the exception
o. local disturbances in the Philip
pines has been since the Spanish un-
pleasantness, it is nevertheless true
that Uncle Sam is now engaged in a
war involving annually an amount
greater than the indemnity paid to-
Germany by France as result OF the
Franco-German conflict In the sew
enties Perhaps no more curious con-
f1ict has ever been waged, for while
the stake is more than $1,000, 100000
( yearly, sum equal to the national
debt, the conflict Is bloodless. Furth-
er than this it is being waged against
insect enemies, the opposing force in
the country's great battle against the
bugs bugs of every description rang
ing from the ordinary garden cutworm
and caterpillar to little known enemies
whose depredations on the agricultur-
al wealth of the country run far into
the millions each year.
The conduct of this war is not how
ever. in the hands of the war depart
ment. instead of Uncle Sans bureau
of entomology-the bug bureau-in the
department of agriculture is in charge
of the campaign and is essentially our
most active war department at pres
ent. Moreover it is a war department
so%o ivyYa in thnncaUdC 0f
wars The enemies it wars against,
the insect pests that prey upon our
crops and gardens and forests, are
numerous beyond computation. One
might as easily try to compute the
number of stars.
The government spends million
dollars year in this warfare. or more
money than all the rest of the civiliz-
ed world. It maintains a highly spec
ialized bureau of 600 persons, of whom
$50 are trained scientists. And these
scientists it lures discriminatory from
professional chairs in our largest uni
yersities. These men are the generals
of the army. Under their directions
detachments are kept moving in all
portions of the country to quell insect
outbreaks. They keep an army divis-
ion in New England fighting the
gypsy and browntail moths and an
other division in the south fighting the
cotton boil weevil, and various scout
ing and skirmishing parties are con-
stantly on the march in various parts
of the country.
Though there are thousands of var.
ieties of insect pests in the United
States, those of the first class, which
become really menacing agricultural
raiders, only number between rs and
so. But these damage growing things
to the extent of $1,20o,000,000 year
The worst insect enemies of our agri-
culture that Uncle Sans entomolog-
ical army has had to fight have been
aliens. OF these the three that stand
out prominently are the gypsy moth
the browntail moth and the cotton boil
weevil. The gypsy moth came from
the south of Europe, the browntail
moth from Holland or France. and the
boil weevil crossed the Rio Grande
from Mexico.
The fight against the gypsy moth has
been nothing less than long warfare
of twenty years in which the national
government and the New England
states, particularly Massachusetts
have expended millions of dollars Il
is the biggest insect war in history Of
the world. In Massachusetts, Maine
Connecticut, Rhode Island and New
Hampshire, the myriad pests have
stripped whole forest areas clean o
leaves. In retaliation the defensiv.
army has expended as much as hun
bred tons of ammunition in singl,
season. This ammunition consist.
principally of arsenate of and stick,
substances forstree banding to proven
the caterpillars climbing to their de
structive feast. For the past decade
the eastern portion of New England
has been under the strictest entom
illogical quarantine. Export articles
likely to carry the eggs of the gips.