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XIV 



Economic Biology 



THE economic side of biology is important because it deals with figures 

 on the importance of the oyster industry in dollars and cents, with 

 the amount of money spent to control weeds, insects, and coyotes, with 

 the value of the cotton crop and with hundreds of other equally-important 

 topics. Much credit should accrue to those men and women who take time 

 out to make up and show us our biological balance sheet. These cost sheets 

 and inventories show us how we stand with regard to many industries and 

 businesses dealing with zoological and botanical materials. They show the 

 degree of prosperity or decadence and they show, in some instances, 

 whether we are winning or losing our economic battles. 



It is difficult, however, to interest most people in dry facts and figures. 

 The layman scarcely shudders when told that insect control and damage 

 costs one billion dollars and that weed control and damage costs us three 

 billion dollars yearly. If a wage earner were handed a bill each year for 

 about thirty dollars for each member of his family for insect and weed 

 control, the basic problem would come closer to home. We pay most of 

 this bill in increased food, clothing, and lumber costs mainly and so natu- 

 rally the impact is not felt directly. 



Economic biology and conservation are tied together. The former may 

 tell us that the forests are being cut three times as fast as they are being re- 

 placed. Conservation scientists, who work in both fields of course, will 

 then attempt to insure that an adequate lumber supply will be planted and 

 in time. Other measures such as increased fire control, more careful lum- 

 bering, prevention of waste and the development of substitutes will be 

 looked into. 



A strong America can remain strong only as long as her natural re- 

 sources are protected from exploitation. Biologists are vitally interested in 

 the forests, in soil erosion, in good grassland and in any subject which af- 

 fects plant and animal fife. In 1947 prolonged rains prevented early plant- 

 ing in many areas of the country and in addition caused such a rise in the 

 main rivers that the levees broke and hundreds of thousands of acres were 

 flooded. A few days after this happened, the experts were able to predict 

 just what this would mean to our winter food supply and what it would 

 mean in the way of increased food costs. Water, soil and organisms are 



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