1877.] The Destructive Locust of the West. 29 
$19,000,000. The annual losses from the chinch bug are greater, 
Mr. Riley says, than from any other insect. The average an- 
nual loss to the cotton crop from the attacks of the cotton army 
worm alone is estimated at $50,000,000. Adding to these the 
losses sustained by the attacks of about a thousand other species 
of insects which affect our cereals, forage and field crops, fruit 
trees and shrubs, garden vegetables, shade and ornamental trees, 
as well as our hard and pine forests, and stored fruits, and it 
will not be thought an exaggeration to put our annual losses at 
$200,000,000. If the people of this country would only look at 
this annual depletion, this absolute waste, which drags her back- 
ward in the race with the countries of the Old World, they might 
see the necessity of taking effectual preventive measures in 
restraining the ravages of insects. With care and forethought 
based on the observance of facts by scientific men, we believe 
that from $50,000,000 to $100,000,000, or from one quarter to 
one half of this annual waste, could be saved to the country. 
And the practical, most efficient way is for the States to codper- 
ate with the general government in the appointment of salaried 
entomologists, and of a United States. commission of entomolo- 
gists, who should combine the results of the state officials, and 
issue weekly, or, if necessary, daily bulletins, perhaps in combi- 
nation with the Weather Signal Bureau, as to the conditions of 
the insect world, forewarning farmers and gardeners from week 
to week as to what enemies should be guarded against and what 
preventive and remedial measures should be used. 
The Weather Signal Bureau, first suggested and urged by the 
late I. A. Lapham, was not instituted without ridicule and oppo- 
sition, but it has saved millions to our commerce and agriculture. 
The maintenance of an entomological commission and the ap- 
pointment of state entomologists would involve comparatively lit- 
tle expense. Already, owing to the full information regarding 
the invasion of Missouri.by the locust in 1874, contained in the 
reports of Prof. C. V. Riley, the people of that State will be 
well prepared from the direful experience of the past, to deal 
more intelligently and efficiently with the locust in the future. 
