780 General and Applied Biology 



of cotton from which were produced 17,755,570 bales. From the cotton 

 fibers of this yield were received $1,121,185,000, and from the cotton 

 seed, $172,131,000. When a cotton planter takes 1,250 pounds of seed 

 cotton to the ginnery, it is converted into one bale (500 pounds) of cot- 

 ton lint or fiber and 750 pounds of cotton seed. The value of all meat- 

 producing animals in the United States in 1928 was estimated to be 

 approximately $3,000,000,000. The value of the woUen and worsted 

 products in this country is slightly less than $1,000,000,000 each year. 

 The. fish industries are also extensive and their products are quite valu- 

 able. The salmon caught on our western coast are estimated to be 

 worth about $50,000,000 annually, while the codfishes are valued at more 

 than $30,000,000 per year. According to recent data, the total value 

 of all farm properties in this country is over $57,000,000,000. If we add 

 to the above list such products as rubber, lumber, hay, fruits, fuels, foods, 

 clothing, and other products, the totals become enormous. In each of 

 them biology plays a very important role in the cultivation, preparation, 

 or use of them. 



Biology makes a great contribution in the production of wealth, but 

 it also makes an appreciable contribution to the methods of preventing 

 unnecessary loss in many fields of human endeavor. Nearly the entire 

 country is infested with rats which carry diseases causing untold dam- 

 ages. Rats destroy property valued at $200,000,000 each year. Metcalf 

 and Flint estimate that the loss caused bv insects in 1924 in the United 

 States was over $1,500,000,000. The science of entomology through 

 the study of insects has supplied us with information which, if efficiently 

 applied, would materially reduce this enormous and unnecessary loss. 

 Losses due to termites are increasing rapidly, and their extermination 

 has been suggested by procedures which have come as the result of ex- 

 tensive experimentation in this field. Fisher estimates that the disease 

 tuberculosis annually costs this country between $500,000,000 and $1,- 

 000,000,000 because of deaths, sickness, loss of work, inefficiency, main- 

 tenance of sanatoriums, hospitals, and similar projects. Much experi- 

 mental work in connection with this one disease has resulted in a decided 

 reduction of the loss due to its ravages. Most of our infectious diseases 

 have been attacked by bacteriologists, and satisfactory progress has been 

 made in many of them, so that today we can live longer and happier 

 lives as the result of their many investigations. How much this field of 

 bacteriology has contributed directly and indirectly to our wealth is 

 beyond human computation. 



