CHAPTER XIII. SUMMARY 
Agriculture is subject to numerous causes of loss. Weather, 
plant and animal diseases, insects, and weeds are among the 
great natural hazards of crop and livestock production. Weather 
is perhaps the chisf one, since not only do droughts cause crop 
failure, but excessive rainfall results in soil erosion and 
floods. All our agricultural crops are subject to diseases, 
some of which cause enormous losses. Insects reduce the yield 
and lower the quality of crops, increase the cost of production 
and harvesting, and require cash outlays for materials and equip= 
ment for control measures. Insects also destroy or reduce the 
quality of many agricultural products in storage. Birds and 
wild game feed on growing crops. Many of our forest trees are 
subject to disease and insect depredations, which sometimes 
destroy vast areas of matures timber. The production of food, 
feed, and fiber crops is made difficult by the losses from weeds. 
A major problem in livestock production is keeping animals 
healthy. losses occur to crops and livestock and their products 
in the course of marketing and processing. Finally, calories 
end other food valnes disappear in the kitchen with the dis-e 
ecard of edihle portions of food or the destruction of nutrients 
in cooking. 
The factors resnonsible for losses in agriculture have two 
kinds of economic effects. They increase the cost of produce 
tion, and they reduce the quantity and quality of the products. 
Because of the lower production, more land and labor must be 
used to provide our requirements. With the same resources and 
cost expenditures, consumer needs would be more fully satisfied 
and better nutrition provided if the causes of loss were not 
present, 
Recently an attempt has been made to assemble the information 
available on the various types of losses to the soil, agricul- 
tural crops (food, feed, and fiber), and livestock for the 
period 1942-51. These estimates are given as loss in value 
and the acreages that would have been saved if the loss had not 
occurred (acreage equivalents). 
The estimates evaluate the crop producticn and land resources 
lost, at the prevailing average farm prices. This does not 
necessarily mean that the farmers! cash income would have been 
increased to the extent indicated if the losses had not been 
incurred. Increased supplies sometimes cause sufficient price 
decreases so that the total farm income may be no greater from 
a large crop than from a small one. However, the use of land, 
labor, equipment, and supplies in producing commodities that 
are later lost represents economic loss both to the farmer and 
to the Nation. The destruction of food supplies is just as 
serious from the standpoint of the American public whether or 
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