Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 



545 



tion. This factor comprehends the reduction of a number of one 

 agent of destruction and of noninterference with another; the 

 encroachment of intensive cultivation of forests and other areas 

 used as breeding grounds, and the many other changes induced by 

 man's dominating influence in the animal kingdom. 



What is being done to offset this factor ? The following paper 

 by Mr. Pellett, delivered at the meeting of the State Horticultural 

 Society during Farmers' Week, 1913, at Columbia, Missouri, gives 

 a clear exposition of this problem. 



FRIENDS AND FOES OF THE FRUIT GROWER. 



(Frank C. Pellett, Atlantic, Iowa. Photos, mostly from life, are by the author.) 



Scientists estimate that insects are responsible for an annual 



tax on agricultural products equal to 

 ten per cent of the total production, 

 including lumber. This means that 

 all farm products, such as meat prod- 

 ucts, dairy, fruit, grains, hay, cotton, 

 vegetables and all the rest including 

 lumber, as above stated, on an aver- 

 age must pay a tribute to insects of 

 at least ten per cent. What is lack- 

 ing in, one is made up in another. 

 For instance, fruits of all kinds are 

 especially liable to injury from in- 

 sects and the damage to them is 

 much above the average. 



Notwithstanding this heavy tax, 

 it is said that less than five per cent 

 of insects are injurious. Ninety-five 

 per cent are either harmless or really beneficial. Again it is said 

 that the five per cent that levy the ten per cent tax on agriculture 

 have become injurious from two causes: the destruction of their 

 natural enemies or the removal of their food plants. The causes 

 that have led to this great tax on farm products are still in opera- 

 tion, and unless checked, will in time lead to much heavier de- 

 mands. It is estimated by some authorities that seventy-five per 

 cent of our bird life has been destroyed. This is at best a guess, 



Frank C. Pdlctt. 



A-35 



