196 OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CLASS — INSEGTA 



insects do to agricultural and horticultural interests is apt 

 to overshadow the benefits these small animals confer upon 

 mankind. We. should not forget that bees are specially 

 useful in cross-fertilizing many of our fruits and certain of 

 our forage plants, notably red clover. The usefulness of 

 the bumblebee, in this respect, was demonstrated when it 

 was found that red clover in Australia did not produce seed 

 until this bee had been imported to cross-fertilize the 

 flowers of the clover plant. 



A most notable demonstration of the value of insects in 

 the cross fertilization of fruits has been made by the Bureau 

 of Entomology of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture in connection with fig growing in California. To 

 produce the best quality of fruit the flowers of the culti- 

 vated fig must be cross-fertilized with the pollen from the 

 wild fig. The structure of the fig flower is such that this 

 can be done only by a tiny insect, the Blastophaga, formerly 

 not found in the United States. After many trials and 

 most praiseworthy persistence the Bureau of Entomology 

 succeeded in importing this insect from the fig-growing dis- 

 tricts of Europe and in establishing it in California with the 

 result that that state is now producing, annually, many 

 tons of figs pronounced by experts to be superior, in some 

 respects, to the imported Smyrna figs. 



Scale insects give us cochineal and carmine and some of 

 them produce the shellac used in finishing furniture, etc. 

 The products of the honeybee amount to hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars each year. 



After all, it is in the role of destroyers of fruits, garden 

 crops, forest trees, and cereals that insects assume their 

 greatest economic importance. It is estimated that the 

 chinch bug destroys forty million dollars' worth of wheat 



