Thus a bobwhite cock might eat on an average in one year 56,430 

 insects and 5,379,168 weed seeds; a hen 74,475 insects and 5,063,520 

 weed seeds and a young bird 65,001 insects and 4,926,520 weed seeds. 



Estimates of the Annual Loss Due to Weeds and Insects. 



It is impossible to make calculations as to how much a bobwhite 's 

 eating of these thousands of insects and millions of weed seeds is worth 

 to us in dollars and cents. I quote, however, a few estimates of the 

 annual losses due to weeds and insects, so that we may get more of an 

 idea of the importance of the problem. 



' ' Since the total value of our principal field crops for the year 1893 

 was $1,760,489,273, an increase of only 1%, which might easily have 

 been brought about through the destruction of weeds, would have meant 

 a saving to the farmers of the nation of about $17,000,000 during that 

 year alone." (1) "The simple cost of weed removal along the railways 

 of the State of Ohio is placed by Stair at over half a million dollars 

 per annum." (13) "The weeds found in cornfields annually cost the 

 farmer of Iowa many thousands of dollars." (12) "Minnesota pro- 

 duces annually about 200,000,000 bushels of small grain. A dockage 

 of one pound per bushel (due to weeds) means a loss of 200,000,000 

 pounds. Had the land been free of weeds the same amount of plant 

 food, moisture and labor would have produced over 3,000,000 bushels 

 of wheat or the equivalent in other grains. This makes an annual loss 

 due to weeds of about $2,500,000 or an annual rental of about 30 cents 

 an acre on every acre on wliich small grain is grown. Added to this 

 great loss we must include cost of fighting weeds, loss of fertility and 

 moisture, strain on machinery, extra cost of twine to tie up the 

 weeds, freight charges for shipping weeds, etc." (14) In Ontario 

 the "Bureau of Industries for the Province in 1898 sent out a few 

 questions about weeds to its regular correspondents, and others, 

 chiefly those who had done satisfactory experimental work in con- 

 nection with the Experimental Union. "A large number of answers 

 were received. ... A number estimate their loss at 25c per 

 acre, and quite a few place it as high as $5 per acre; so consider- 

 ing the whole list and counting labor, with the loss of soil moisture, 

 fertility, etc., we think that $1 per acre is a conservative estimate 

 of the annual loss throughout the Province." (5) 



C L. Marlatt in "The Annual Loss Occasioned by Destructive In- 

 sects in the United States" estimates the yearly tax chargeable to in- 



