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JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 17 
afield to find that out. Perhaps no office in the Department has been 
in hot water so often, rightly or wrongly, as our statistical office. We, 
as insect-loss statisticians, may get too close a view of our subject and 
lose the necessary contacts or perspectives. It is important to re¬ 
member that we are not alone in the field of estimating plant pest 
damage. There are the phytopathologists, nematologists, ornitholo¬ 
gists, and mammalogists, to say nothing of the ecologists and other 
ologists, and all of these must have their rake -off! In our estimates 
we must take account of all these factors and leave a little over for the 
other fellows, and a little over after all that for the farmer! He must 
have something! 
In general in our estimates of crop damage the crop produced is the 
last word on the subject. If such crop of wheat, for example, is only 5 
bushels to the acre under severe Hessian fly attack—other conditions 
being about normal—one can fairly safely charge the reduction 
from a normal of say 15 bushels to the acre to the fly. The crop itself, 
in other words, tells the story. That all the factors concerned in possible 
crop production must be taken into account has been stressed 'by most 
of the speakers, but I think none of them has indicated that the farmer 
has some rights in the matter, and that you must leave something for 
him. I can illustrate by the story of a young lawyer who had won his 
first case and had secured quite a large sum for his client. He w r as dis¬ 
turbed about what fee to charge and went to an old seasoned lawyer and 
asked him if he thought 10 per cent would be about right. The answer 
was: “I think I would leave your client a little more than 10% if I were 
you.” 
On the subject of the detail necessary in estimating losses I think there 
is some tendency to go into too much minutiae. Such course may 
lead, as already indicated, to a narrowing of the viewpoint and a failure 
to properly gage the general damage for the region or district concerned. 
A great deal of insect damage is spotted and .there is a human tendency 
which it is almost impossible to overcome and regulate—to go to the 
spot where the damage is worst. This danger adheres in the selection of 
the field, orchard or tree to be the basis of the estimate and this is one of 
the difficulties which we have all got to face and keep in mind. One 
may easily go to the extreme of detail of observation, countings and 
tabulations, involving weeks and months of hard work and accumulate 
altogether too much of statistics and then naturally you want to publish 
it and that is the w r orst of it! I believe in accuracy but please file most of 
the working details and tables in your offices. If anyone questions your 
