224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Europe during tlie revolutionary war, has almost periodically 

 ravaged the wheat crop in certain sections of the country. 

 In 1885 the injury caused by this insect in Wayne and On- 

 tario counties, New York, was estimated at one hundred thou- 

 sand dollars.* The cotton worm (Alelia argillacea, Hubn.) 

 was very destructive in the south in 1793, 1800, 1804, 1825 

 and 1826, and has since been very destructive somewhere in 

 the south nearly every year. J The average loss caused by 

 this insect in the cotton States for the fourteen years following 

 the Avar is estimated at fifteen million dollars a year.J The 

 damage in 1873 was estimated at twenty-five million dollars, J 

 and the later average annual loss from twenty-five million 

 dollars to fifty million dollars. § 



It is only within a few years that the application of insecti- 

 cides has served to keep the cotton worm in check in a great 

 measure. 



Native insects have proved very costly to the agricultural 

 interests. Civilization has given the most favorable oppor- 

 tunities for the multiplication of insects like the chinch bug 

 and the potato beetle (Doryphora decern. -lineata, Say.). The 

 loss occasioned by the chinch bug (Blissus leucopterus, Say.) 

 in Illinois alone in 1864 is estimated at seventy-three million 

 dollars, || and the total loss in this and the adjoining States at 

 one hundred million dollars. IT 



The Rocky Mountain locust (Calop/enus spretus, Uhler.) 

 has at times ravaged whole States and driven farmers to emi- 

 gration. Famine has sometimes followed these attacks. The 

 damage in 1874 to 1877 by this insect in the United States is 

 estimated at two hundred million dollars.** The annual dam- 

 age to agricultural interests in the United States by insects 

 has been variously estimated. In 1868 Mr. B. D. Walsh in 

 the ' ' American Entomologist " estimated it at two hundred 



* Fourth annual report injurious and other insects of New York State, by Dr. J. A. 

 Lintner, page 11. 



t Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., report on Rocky Mountain locust, United States Geo- 

 graphical Survey, 1877, page 776. 



% Fourth report United States Entomological Commission, page 3. 



§ Rocky Mountain locust, Packard, page 591. 



|| First annual report of injurious and other,insects of New York State, J. A. Lintner, 

 Albany, N. Y., 1882, page 7. 



f Dr. Shimer's notes on chinch bug, as given by A. S. Packard iu report ou Rocky 

 Mountain locust, 1877, page 697. 



** "Insect Life," vol. 2, page 216. 



