20 



fcsoiue four ^eais ago the Piue liaik beetle coiu 

 mitted depredations iu the pine forests of Southwest- 

 ern Pennsylvania and in West Virginia amounting to 

 fully $1,000,000, and last year, according to the esti- 

 mates of our correspondents, the army worm damaged 

 crops, chiefly cereals, to the extent of at least $300,000. 

 In 1895, "rose bugs" and English sparrows caused, 

 according to the testimony of our Erie county cor- 

 respondents, fully 150,000 loss to vineyards in the 

 famous Erie grape belt. 



THE LOSS IN OTHER STATES. 



In North Carolina, the insect hosts annually, it is 

 said, destroy over one and one-half million dollars 

 worth of agricultural products. In 1893, the loss from 

 granary insects to the corn crop alone in the State of 

 ^moamsL was claimed to be |1,671,882, and in the Lone 

 Star State grain weevils, according to a well known 

 writer, cause an annual loss in stored cereals of over 

 11,000,000. In 1874, the Western States were visited 

 by grasshoppers which played such havoc with the 

 crops that their depredations amounted to $45,000,000. 

 The chinch bugs were so numerous iu Illinois in 1804 

 that they cost the people of that State over $73,000,000. 

 and in Missouri in 1874 the same voracious pests de- 

 voured agricultural products to the amount of $19,- 

 000,000. In the cotton raising States the annual loss 

 through the cotton worm from 1864 to 1880 was esti- 

 mated at about |15,000,000. 



Dr. Packard states that: "Each species of plant on an aver- 

 age supports three to four species of insects, and numerous 

 plants, particularly those in general cultivation, afford sub- 

 sistence to many more. Many species, which now attack gar- 

 den vegetables or fruit or vines, once lived In the forest on en- 

 tirely different vegetable life." 



