4 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



Truck Crops. Truck crops are peculiarly susceptible to 

 insect attacks, and their control forms one of the chief items in 

 the cost of production. It is safe to say that truck crops suffer 

 from insect ravages fully twice as much as do the staples, or 20 

 per cent of their total value. Statistics are not available for 

 the present value of truck crops, but they were probably worth 

 $1,500,000,000 in 1919, making the insect tax for the trucker 

 fully $300,000,000. 



Fruits. Fruit trees are also much more seriously injured 

 by insects than are the staple crops, and their control involves 

 a large expense to the fruit-grower. Where it is not combated, 

 the codling moth, or apple worm, causes a loss of from 

 30 to 50 per cent of the crop, and where it is controlled by 

 spraying a considerable expense is involved. The loss and cost 

 of treatment for this pest alone amount, to $35,000,000 for the 

 United States, and were it not for the fact that it is now largely 

 controlled in the principal fruit-growing sections, the loss would 

 be double or treble this sum. The loss due to the San Jose scale 

 is difficult to estimate, but it is well known that it has destroyed 

 millions of trees and that in the principal fruit regions where this 

 pest is prevalent it is necessary to treat the trees annually 

 at a cost of from 10 to 25 cents per tree, so that $10,000,000 a 

 year would be a very conservative estimate of its annual cost. 

 Both deciduous and citrus fruits have a host of insect pests, 

 always present and doing more or less damage and occasionally 

 becoming so abundant as to threaten the life of the trees or their 

 crops. Fifteen per cent of the value of our fruit products, 

 worth at least $75,000,000, is certainly destroyed by insect 

 pests every year. 



Forest Insects. Only those who have had opportunity to 

 observe the ravages of insects in timber and in timber products 

 can appreciate the enormous losses which they occasion. Prob- 

 ably no one is better informed upon this matter than Dr. A. D. 

 Hopkins, in charge of the Forest Insect Investigations of the 

 U. S. Bureau of Entomology, who has made a life study of these 

 pests in all parts of the country. In a recent circular* he states 

 that " the amount of insect-killed and damaged timber left in the 

 woods, plus the reduction in value of that utilized, to be charged 



*A. D. Hopkins, Circular 129, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agr. 



