OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 19 



below the mark. The loss of fruit alone by the devastations of insects, 

 within a radius of fifty miles of this city, must amount in value to 

 millions. In my neighborhood the peach once flourished, but flour- 

 ishes no more, and cherries have been all but annihilated. Apples 

 were till lately our most profitable and perhaps our most important 

 product; but the worms have taken half our average crop, and sadly 

 damage what they do not utterly destroy. Plums we have ceased to 

 grow or expect; our pears are generally stung and often blighted; 

 even the currant has at last its fruit-destroying worm. We must fight 

 our paltry adversaries more efiiciently, or allow them to drive us 

 wholly from the field." 



The above estimate, great as it seems, is, I believe, far below the 

 mark ; and, indeed, it is only when we begin to make careful compu- 

 tation of the average annual loss to this country by insect depreda- 

 tions, and express the sum in round numbers, that we can form any 

 intelligent conception of its magnitude. The State of Missouri, alone, 

 loses annually from fifteen to twenty million dollars, at the very least, 

 and the loss to the Southern cotton-growing States, the present year, 

 within a single fortnight, by a single insect, (the Cotton-worm, Anomis 

 xylina)^ was lately estimated at twenty millions. There is not the 

 least doubt but that the damage inflicted by insects on the farmers of 

 the United States exceeds tenfold the united damages of all other 

 animals put together. It is rarely, if ever, that entire crops are de- 

 stroyed by birds, rats or squirrels ; yet we all know that a single mi- 

 nute insect — the Chinch-bug — often so injures a crop of wheat that it 

 is not worth the cutting. 



PROGRESS OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



It is upward of a century since the Swedish authorities became 

 greatly alarmed at the fearful destruction of timber in their dock- 

 yards, caused by a minute boring beetle {Lymexilon navale). They 

 did the very best thing they could have done, under the circumstances 

 — they applied to their celebrated entomologist. Linnaeus. After a 

 tedious investigation, Linnasus found that the perfect beetle which 

 laid the eggs from which proceeded all the mischief, appeared in the 

 month of May, and in no other month. So he said to the authorities — 

 " Gentlemen, all you have to do is to immerse your timber under 

 water during the month of May, and you will be no more troubled 

 with Lymexilon navale^ The Government did so — for the remedy 

 was simple and inexpensive ; and the result was as Linnasus had pre- 

 dicted. From that time forth, the importance of a knowledge of insect 

 economy as a means of preventing the depredations of the pests 

 which aflect our products, began to be realized ; and the growth of 

 Economic Entomology began. In Prussia and many parts of Germany 

 — where the appreciation of true science has done so much to elevate 

 the nation — the rudiments of Entomology are taught in the common 

 schools ; and in the great agricultural colleges there are often special 

 Professors of this department, distinct from the Professors of the 

 other departments of natural history. Their best text-books devote 



