438 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



If, therefore, congress, through these agencies, is preventing the 

 introduction of human and animal diseases and noxious animals, and 

 their interstate movement, and eradicates or controls them in sections 

 where their presence threatens the commerce and welfare of other 

 states, why may not the spread of imported insect pests dangerous to 

 plants be similarly regulated? The writer has studied the principles 

 involved with some care and fails to see that those concerning insect 

 pests of domestic animals and plants are not identical. 



An interesting phase of the whole discussion arises from the recent 

 convention of the southern states, which passed resolutions, not only 

 praying congress that the national government take charge of all 

 quarantines, but that it proceed to the extermination of the yellow- 

 fever mosquito. Whether extermination of this pest is possible or not 

 I am not informed. From experience with other insects it would seem 

 doubtful. There can be no question, however, that to control yellow 

 fever the breeding of Stegomyia fasciata must be prevented. In 

 the control of yellow fever, the federal government would therefore 

 have a perfect right to proceed against this insect as a menace to 

 human health. We have then the anomalous condition that the na- 

 tional government can control the introduction and spread of insects 

 which affect the health of man and the domestic animals, but that it 

 has no laws against those affecting crops or plant life. Is not the loss 

 to plant life from insect pests far greater than to animal life? How 

 do the values of animal and plant products compare? According to 

 the report of the secretary of agriculture for 1905, the domestic animals 

 of the United States are worth $2,995,370,277 in 1904. There are 

 no figures as to the exact value of animal products, but estimating a 

 similar increase from 1900, they would be worth approximately $2,- 

 000,000,000. The total value of farm products are estimated by the 

 secretary for 1905 at $6,415,000,000. Plant products would therefore 

 be worth approximately $4,415,000,000, the ten staples alone being 

 worth $3,515,000,000, while the value of all domestic animals and 

 their products would be $4,885,572,394. In brief, the plant products 

 are more than twice the value of the animal products and nearly equal 

 in value both the live animals and the products they produced. These 

 estimates include the value of the products of so-called ' farm forests/ 

 but do not include the value of lumber or the virgin forests not on 

 farms, conservatively estimated to be worth from three to four billion 

 dollars, nor is the inestimable value of city shade trees and parks 

 considered. 



The losses occasioned by insects, exclusive of those to animals and 

 stored products, have recently been estimated by Mr. C. L. Marlatt at 

 $520,000,000, which is entirely conservative. 



We would venture the assertion, therefore, that the annual losses 

 occasioned by imported insect pests far exceed all losses of animals from 



