37© READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



of Agriculture, as a result of a survey in that state, estimates an annual loss 

 of 34,000 head of cattle and 165,000 sheep. A single wolf killed in southern 

 New Mexico was reported to have killed in the preceding six months 150 

 head of cattle valued at not less than $5,000. 



Through the watchful activity of the Biological Survey bureau it is proba- 

 ble that many another catastrophe similar to the introduction of the Eng- 

 lish sparrow, gypsy moth, and Hessian fly has been averted. Some years 

 ago the mongoose applied for admission and a few individuals did indeed 

 gain an entrance. The mongoose preys on mice and rats, but unfortunately 

 attacks poultry and wild birds as well. It has been introduced into Jamaica 

 where it has proven a nuisance through its depredations. By the passage of 

 a law placing the importation of foreign animals under the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, the bureau has been able to prevent its establishment in the 

 United States. 



Monstrous as is the tax which we pay to our four-footed foes, it is small 

 in comparison with the tribute levied by our winged enemies. Estimates 

 of so uncertain a sum as the loss caused by insects are bound to vary, but 

 even accepting the minimum figure of $1,000,000,000 annually, the amount 

 is surely ample. 



In the eighties the orange and lemon groves of California were threat- 

 ened with ruin by an innocent-looking but destructive scale insect. Soon 

 the Bureau of Entomology had experts on the ground learning all they 

 could about the vicious stranger. They learned that the scale insects were 

 natives of Australia, whence they had been imported into California on 

 young orange trees in 1868. Now it occurred to them that in the native 

 home of the scale might perchance be found some natural enemy, which 

 if introduced into California might drive out, or at least hold in check the 

 terrible scale. And so one of them journeyed to Australia and there he 

 found the ladybird beetle which preyed upon the scale. And this he brought 

 back with him to California, where it throve; and making war upon the 

 scale it has ever since held it in check. 



In Hawaii the ravages of the sugar-cane weevil, which bores its destruc- 

 tive way into the sugar canes, have been materially reduced by the intro- 

 duction of a parasitic fly from British New Guinea. 



Scab mites, which in years past levied a heavy toll upon the cattle grower, 

 have been nearly exterminated; the foot and mouth disease, which in 19 14 

 was epidemic in twenty-two states, and was seriously threatening the live- 

 stock industry of the country, was stamped out after a hard fight; hog 

 cholera, ever a serious drain upon the hog industry, is gradually being 

 brought under control by the use of a serum and other measures, and an 

 active campaign is now under way for the suppression of tuberculosis in 

 hogs and cattle, a disease not alone serious to the animal industry, but, 

 when present in dairy cattle, a very probable menace to human life. 



The duties of the members of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant In- 



