THE INJURY TO CROPS BY INSECT PESTS 



With this brief survey of the losses due to insect pests, we may 

 summarize them in a table which will show that the total is based 

 upon conservative estimates. 



ANNUAL VALUES OF FARM PRODUCTS AND LOSSES CHARGEABLE 

 TO INSECT PESTS * 



* Based upon table of C. L Marlatt, I.e., modified by statistics of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, Yearbook I*. S. Department of Agriculture for 1909. 

 t Estimated. 



One billion dollars is thus a conservative estimate of the 

 damage done to staple crops, fruits, truck crops, domestic animals, 

 timber and stored products by these apparently insignificant 

 insects. 



Yet there is another aspect to the matter. "One man's loss 

 is another man's gain" is never more true than as regards these 

 losses occasioned by insects; for, through widespread injury by 

 them, prices rise, while if these injuries did not occur and corre- 

 spondingly large crops were placed upon the market, prices must 

 surely fall. These estimates of losses due to insects are then very 

 largely comparative. Yet, to a large extent, they are still real 

 losses, the same as are those occasioned by fire and storm; for 



