Montana State Library 



3 0864 1004 0595 3 



The Eighth Annual Report 



of the 



State Entomologist of Montana 



Considering the stage of her development, Montana has her full 

 share of the pests and diseases affecting plant life and there is no 

 crop of importance grown in the State that is not more or less serious- 

 ly affected. 



Entomologists, after carefully looking into the matter, have con- 

 cluded that, on an average, fully ten per cent of the total produce of 

 the country is annually destroyed by insect pests. The detailed esti- 

 mates have been submitted to the scientific world and have gone un- 

 questioned. The recently issued annual report of the Secretary 

 of Agriculture places the value of the total agricultural produce of 

 the United States during the year 1910 at the enormous figure of 

 $8, 926,000,000.00, a sum quite beyond comprehension. Ten per cent 

 of this is $892,000,000.00, or the approximate sum that our country 

 loses annually from the depredations of insect pests. Montana's 

 share of this loss is about in proportion to her contribution to the 

 total crop of the country, and, were the exact figures now available, 

 ; t could be shown that our various classes of farmers would be bene- 

 fited by hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars, were 

 insects and diseases of crops brought fully under control. 



MONTANA NOT FREE FROM PESTS AS OFTEN REPORTED. 



There is a widespread impression in Montana that, while other 

 parts of the country are seriously affected with pests, our fair land is 

 nearly or quite free. We have shown, in earlier reports and 

 bulletins, that there is already a large proportion of the pests and 

 diseases that could reasonably be expected to thrive in our climate 

 and that, in number and power of doing injury, there is really little 

 difference between the pests of our State and those of other States. 



This erroneous idea may be attributed to two things, namely, 

 the false impression given out by interested property owners, 



