60 Bureau of Farmees' Institutes. 



would be impossible to obtain a full set of fruit without resorting 

 to artificial fertilization. The enormous labor involved in this is 

 easily understood and when we think of the number of trees and 

 other plants that would have to be gone over and the relatively 

 short time in which the work must be accomplished, our depend- 

 ence upon insects is apparent. This emphasizes the wisdom of 

 not spraying trees while in blossom. The spray wets the flowers, 

 thus preventing the insects from working for a time, the poison 

 used is apt to burn the tender parts of the flower, rendering fer- 

 tilization impossible, and finally the bees themselves may be 

 poisoned by visiting sprayed blossoms. They may even carry the 

 poison home, kill the brood and contaminate the honey. There is 

 also a state law prohibiting spraying trees while in bloom. So 

 far as controlling insects is concerned, everything necessary can 

 be accomplished by applications made either before or after 

 blossoming time. 



Losses caused hi/ insects. — Many persons fail to realize the 

 enormous losses caused by insects. The annual loss in the United 

 States has been estimated at |400,000,000. Dr. C. H. Fernald, 

 State Entomologist of Massachusetts, considers a loss through 

 insect ravages of 10 per cent, of the value of a crop a conservative 

 estimate. On this basis, the loss on cereals, potatoes and hay 

 grown in New York State in 1898 would amount in round num- 

 bers to $7,000,000. Professor Slingerland, of Cornell Univ-rsity, 

 estimates that the codling moth causes an annual loss in New 

 York State of |2,500,000 on the apple crop and |500,000 on the 

 pear crop, making a total for this insect of |3, 000,000. An im- 

 portant point to remember in this connection is, that of 73 species 

 regarded as of prime economic importance, that is each causing 

 annually in the United States losses running into the hundreds 

 of thousands of dollars, 37 are known to have been introduced, 

 and the original home of six is still open to question. We may 

 not be able to exclude insects from the country at large or from 

 the state, but the individual farmer has it largely in his power to 

 prevent certain species from obtaining a foothold on his farm. An 

 orchard is grown not for the fruit it produces the year after it is 



