INSECT ENEMIES OF OUR CEREAL CROPS 



By C. M. Packard 

 Principal Entomologist, Bureau of Entomologu and Plant Quarantine, Agricul- 

 tural Research Administration, V. 8. Department of Agriculture 



[With 19 plates] 



To the casual observer the growing of cereal crops such as corn, 

 wheat, and oats seems to be a very simple procedure. We accept our 

 daily bread — as well as our meat, milk, and eggs — with little thought 

 of the labor involved and the difficulties surmounted in placing these 

 essential foods on our tables. In these days of urban industrial life 

 two-thirds of the population have forgotten, if they ever heard, the 

 old rule for planting corn : "One for the squirrel, one of the crow, one 

 for the cutworm, and one to grow." Nevertheless, with all our 

 modern improvements in farming, the crop losses recognized in this 

 old adage still occur, even though ways of reducing these losses are 

 gradually being found. 



LOSSES AND SAVINGS 



The 25 percent loss of crops implied by this old saying as being due 

 to insects is much too high for a general average, although almost 

 total losses are caused annually by one insect pest or another in 

 occasional fields. An annual reduction due to insects of about 10 

 percent in crop yields is, however, considered a conservative estimate. 

 Even this much reduction may mean tlie difference between profit and 

 loss from a whole year of labor by an individual farmer. Moreover, 

 in these days when so many men are fighting instead of producing and 

 when they, as well as our allies, must be fed if the war is to be won 

 and starvation is to be prevented, the toll taken by the insects as well 

 as our other enemies increases in importance. The 10 percent of our 

 normal production of staple crops taken annually by insects would 

 far more than feed all our fighting forces and would go far toward 

 supplying the food needed by our allies. 



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