396 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 30 



8. There is a third way of postponing the coming of the starvation 

 era, and that is b}' the stopping of all waste. 



9. Probably the greatest of these wastes is the tremendous but 

 unnecessary tribute that we pay to insects. In the United States 

 alone, the labor of 1,000,000 men each year is lost through insect 

 damage to crops and to our other vital interests. And this damage 

 is increasing. The problem is very much greater than it was even 

 20 j^ears ago. In order to get the quickest and most abundant food 

 supplies, we are growing our crops in many instances in exactly the 

 way to favor best the increase of crop pests. The cotton boll weevil, 

 for example, might never have been heard of as a serious crop pest 

 if it had not been brought by accident across the Rio Grande and 

 found itself in a whole great State largely devoted to the growing of 

 its favorite food and growing it in just the way to favor the beetle's 

 multiplication to the extreme. The European corn borer, to take 

 another example, would do little harm if we did not farm our corn- 

 lands just as we do. 



10. It is necessary that we should understand present conditions — 

 that we should understand that insects are our dangerous rivals for 

 the food supplies of the world, and that they are our important rivals 

 and enemies in many other ways. Then it will come about that 

 many men will turn their attention to insect problems. Many men 

 of sound training will study> every aspect of insect life. Competent 

 chemists, physicists, botanists, agricultural engineers, and agrono- 

 mists will take the findings of the increasing number of entomologists, 

 and upon them will base measures for the relief of humanity. The 

 time can not come too soon. Teachers of biology should at once 

 begin to learn and to teach entomology. 



Having thus stated briefly and rather definitely what appears to 

 me to be the situation and the general course that should be pursued, 

 I think that it may be of interest to elaborate some of the points. 



In the paragraph numbered 5, we have referred to the physical 

 disadvantages of the human species as compared with insects. From 

 the engineering point of view the limb of a vertebrate, with the 

 skeleton inside, other things being equal, is three times weaker than 

 the insect limb having its skeleton on the outside. This outer 

 skeleton of the insect is composed of chitin, an albuminoid that is 

 attacked neither by alkaline solutions nor by dilute acid. It does 

 not grow brittle with age like the bones of vertebrates. The muscles 

 that are exposed in human beings to the slightest injury and are 

 attached to the inner bones, are, in insects, covered and protected by 

 the chitin, and they function better from their numerous attach- 

 ments to ridges on the inner side of the covering. The insect skeleton 

 is composed of waste material, while the bony skeleton of man is 

 composed largely of proteins and inorganic materials, chiefly lime 



