ENTOMOLOGY 23 



THE ANNUAL LOSS OCCASIONED BY DESTRUCTIVE IN- 

 SECTS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In no country in the world do insects impose a heavier tax on 

 farm products than in the United States. The losses resulting from 

 the depredations of insects on all the plant products of the soil, both 

 in their growing and in their stored state, together with those on live 

 stock, exceed the entire expenditures of the National Government, 

 including the pension roll and the maintenance of the Army and the 

 Navy. Enormous as is the total value of all farm products in this 

 country, it would be very much greater were it not for the work of 

 these injurious insects. The statistics of agricultural products for 

 the year 1889, of the Twelfth Census, and for subsequent years, 

 gathered by the Bureau of Statistics of the Agricultural Department, 

 indicate an annual value of all the products of the farm of about 

 $5,000,000,000. To one familiar with the work of the important in- 

 sect pests of the different agricultural products entering into this total 

 it is comparatively easy to approximate the probable shrinkage due 

 to insects. The detailed consideration of such shrinkage which fol- 

 lows indicates that they will rarely fall below 10 per cent, and in 

 years of excessive insect damage may amount to 50 per cent or even 

 more of the important staple products of the farm. An annual 

 shrinkage of 10 per cent is a low estimate, which is more often ex- 

 ceeded than fallen below, and indicates, at current farm prices, a 

 money loss of $500,000,000 the minimum yearly tax which insects 

 lay on the products of the farm. This total comprises, however, only 

 losses suffered by the growing and maturing crops and annually by 

 live stock, and does not include two very considerable and legitimate 

 items, namely, the loss occasioned by insect pests to farm products, 

 chiefly cereals and forage crops, in storage, and to natural forests and 

 forest products. As shown in the consideration of these two sources 

 of loss presented below, at least $100,000,000 must be assigned to 

 each, making a total annual tax chargeable to insects of $700,000,000. 

 (Reprint Y. B. Dep. of Agr. 1904). 



BASIS OF ESTIMATES. 



Throughout this work the estimate of losses in dollars is based on 

 the farm price of the crop actually harvested, and does not, there- 

 fore, take into account the possible reduction in value which would 

 follow the marketing of the larger crop. While it is true that 

 prices are regulated by production, the factor of distribution may 

 often predominate, so that large crops in certain countries may 

 sometimes bring good prices and small crops low prices. During 

 the ten years previous to 1.904, for example, the price of wheat in 

 this country exhibited little if any relation to our own production. 

 The bumper wheat crop of 1901 of nearly 750,000,000 'bushels 

 brought to the farmer 23 cents a bushel more than the crop of 

 1894, which was 300,000,000 bushels less, or but little more than 

 half the production of 1901 ; and in 1904 the farmer received nearly 

 $1 a bushel for his wheat on a crop larger than the average- 



