394 ENTOMOLOGY 



to escape observation. Regarded as a direct tax of ten cents 

 upon the dollar, however, this loss becomes impressive. Web- 

 ster says : " It costs the American farmer more to feed his 

 insect foes than it does to educate his children." The average 

 annual damage done by insects to crops in the United States 

 was conservatively estimated by Walsh and Riley to be $300,- 

 000,000 or c^bout $50 for each farm. " A recent estimate by 

 "experts put the yearly loss from forest insect depredations at 

 not less than $100,000,000. The common schools of the coun- 

 try cost in 1902 the sum of $235,000,000, and all higher insti- 

 tutions of learning cost less than $50,000,000, making the total 

 cost of education in the United States considerably less than 

 the farmers lost from insect ravages. Thus it would be within 

 the statistical truth to make a still more startling statement 

 than Webster's, and say, that it costs American farmers more 

 to feed their insect foes than it does to maintain the whole 

 system of education for everybody's children. 



" Furthermore, the yearly losses from insect ravages aggre- 

 gate nearly twice as much as it costs to maintain our army and 

 navy; more than twice the loss by fire; twice the capital in- 

 vested in manufacturing agricultural implements; and nearly 

 three times the estimated value of the products of all the fruit 

 orchards, vineyards, and small fruit farms in the country." 

 (Slingerland.) 



Though most of the parasites of domestic animals are 

 merely annoyances, some inflict serious or even fatal injury, 

 as has been said. The gad flies persecute horses and cattle; 

 the maggots of a bot fly grow in the frontal sinuses of sheep, 

 causing vertigo and often death; another bot fly develops in 

 the stomach of the horse, enfeebling the animal. The worst 

 of the bot flies, however, is Hypoderma lincata, the ox-warble, 

 which not only impairs the beef but damages the hide by its 

 perforations; the loss from this insect for one period of six 

 months (Chicago, 1889) was conservatively estimated as 

 $3,336,565, of which $667,513 represented the injury to hides. 



All sorts of food stuffs are attacked by insects, particularly 



