124 



Illinois Natural History Slrvev Bulletin 



Vol. 27. Art. 2 



commerce or even from being sold on the 

 local market. 



Though it is not possible to establish 

 monetary values for each of the accom- 

 plishments just mentioned, the almost 

 S8.000.000 Tiverage annual profit, table 

 1. resulting from the use of insecticides 

 on cereal and forage crops in Illinois illus- 

 trates the benefits of entomological re- 

 search. 



There are those who will say that ag- 

 riculture cannot afford the cost of insect 

 control or that the farmer dare not add 

 such charges to his overhead cost. Such 

 assertions are economically unsound. The 

 overhead charges associated with the 

 planting, cultivating, and harvesting of 

 each acre of crops are fixed. If a farmer 

 can increase yields sufficiently to provide 

 a cash return of tvvo, four, eight, or more 

 times the cost of insecticide treatment, 

 the extra harvest is produced much more 

 cheaply than the rest of the crop and 

 thereby increases net profits and effects a 

 reduction of operating costs. 



Insect control — or the lack thereof — 

 may have an indirect bearing on economic 

 and sociological considerations in addi- 

 tion to those related to crop savings or 

 crop losses. By increasing per-acre yields, 

 maximum utilization of insect control 

 measures might enable upwards of a mil- 

 lion acres of Illinois farm land to be re- 

 tired from cultivation and put to new 

 uses. Some reactionaries will argue that 

 increased yields would mean overproduc- 

 tion and lower prices; this argument has 

 been applied to almost every new techno- 

 logical development. 



For years we have been attaining pro- 

 duction goals by mining the soil — by 

 wringing from it the fertility that must 

 be replaced if future generations are to 

 have their share. Economically and mor- 

 ally, we are obligated to produce maxi- 

 mum \ ields as efficiently as possible on a 

 minimum number of acres. The surplus 

 land should be removed from annual cul- 

 tivation and its fertility maintained or 

 improved with soil building practices em- 

 ployed until such time as an expanding 

 population requires further production. 

 Even if Illinois could afford to squander 

 its land resources and its manpower, the 

 support of research for effective insect 

 control would still he a foresighted invest- 



ment. When men of wisdom, interested 

 in the nation's future, combine forces in 

 building a sound agricultural program, 

 insect control will rank high in the list of 

 technological musts. 



EMPHASIS FOR THE FUTURE 



Throughout the past century in Illi- 

 nois, the extent and variety of insect con- 

 trol problems, which were often of an 

 emergency nature, dictated that entomol- 

 ogy- be strictly applied and be aimed at 

 immediate, practical goals. Perhaps the 

 pressure for immediate, practical results 

 reached its peak in the mid-1940's, when 

 a number of new and apparently highly 

 effective insecticides became available for 

 study and use. Everyone wanted to know 

 at once what these insecticides were good 

 for, how they should be used, and what 

 hazards might be involved in their use. 

 Now this pressure is subsiding; the Illi- 

 nois farmer is in possession of reasonably 

 practical control measures for most of 

 his important insect pests. Economic en- 

 tomology in Illinois is now in a position 

 to seek information on the basic problems 

 of insect control. 



This statement does not mean that all 

 the insect problems of Illinois are solved ; 

 we should not be surprised that new prob- 

 lems will arise as new insect species are 

 introduced and as species already here 

 modify their habits or adjust their re- 

 sponses and behavior to an ever-changing 

 environment. However, we have appar- 

 ently reached a turning point that will re- 

 quire a revision of our responsibilities and 

 will materially alter our objectives and 

 procedures. 



With reasonably effective control meth- 

 ods available for most pests, and with the 

 majority of our basic crops in surplus 

 production, emphasis on the temporary 

 solution of immediate problems and on 

 increased production must logically be 

 shifted to the development of more basic 

 studies ultimately leading to new meth- 

 ods of insect control. A review of the his- 

 tory of chinch bug. armyworm, codling 

 moth, and potato beetle control makes it 

 apparent that progress came in steps 

 spaced 10 or 20 or more years apart. In 

 entomolog>% as in other branches of sci- 

 ence, real progress is made through the 



