WHEAT AND COKN IXJUJRIES. 15 



we are told of the Diplosis tritici, the wheat midge of 

 North America, that in 1854, in New York alone, it 

 destroyed the wheat crop to the value of 3,000,000. 

 In Ohio, in the same year, it was still more hurtful ; and 

 in Canada it destroyed 8,000,000 bushels of wheat. 

 Later on, in 1864, the cash value of the wheat and corn 

 destroyed in the State of Illinois by the chinch bug was 

 estimated at $7 3,00 0,000. Still more recently, in 1 8 8 2, 

 when the total public revenue of the United States was 

 $524,000,000, the annual value of the agricultural 

 produce consumed by insects has been estimated, at the 

 lowest, at $200,000,000, and by Mr. E. D. Walsh at 

 $300,000,000. 



For some years past the Governments of India have 

 been recommending to the people improved implements 

 of husbandry, but the above details will have shown 

 that protection against animal and vegetable raiders is a 

 great, it may be even a greater, want. To make these 

 enemies known, and to indicate measures likely to check 

 their ravages, are the objects in view in publishing this 

 volume. The larger quadrupeds are becoming fewer 

 under the hand of man, but there are other foes preying 

 on the produce of the fields, and husbandmen may 

 legitimately look to their rulers for counsel how to defeat 

 these enemies, and secure for the increasing population 

 a larger share of the crops. In so praiseworthy a pursuit 

 agricultural India might reasonably hope for help from 

 some of its own people, and they may certainly trust to 

 the learned men of Europe and America for all the aid 

 that science can afford. I have already to acknowledge 

 valued assistance from the library, the entomological, and 

 the botanical departments of the British Museum of 

 Natural History, and the library of the Colonial Office as 



