February, ’20] SAFRO: WORK OF RAILROAD ENTOMOLOGIST 
113 
“We are prepared to move about 3,000 cars of onions from southern Texas, and 
the Laredo district is suffering from one of the worst infestations of thrips I have 
ever seen. . . .We estimate the tonnage reduced fully 20 per cent on account 
of this pest.” 
It had previously been demonstrated in this same district that the 
ravages of the onion thrips could be materially checked by proper 
control methods; and, accepting Mr. Hughes’s estimate of 20 per cent 
reduction in tonnage due to the onion thrips, the work of an ento¬ 
mologist for about two months in the Laredo district might have been 
conducive to a greater tonnage with a maximum possibility of increase 
amounting to 750 cars. 
E. G. Kelly writes in the Journal of Economic Entomology, 
April, 1917, p. 233, that the “green bug” in 1916 destroyed 250,000 
acres of oats and 100,000 acres of wheat in Kansas alone, mostly in 
only four counties. In Oklahoma, the destruction was estimated at 
350,000 acres of oats and 160,000 acres of wheat. Mr. Kelly informed 
the writer at the time that a good part of this infestation could have 
been prevented by proper entomological procedure. 
Proper entomological work at that time would not only have paid 
the railroad a profit amounting to many times the expenditure of the 
entomological service but would have increased the wealth of the 
population along the railroad and because of this would have mate¬ 
rially contributed to the good will—an asset which the railroads recog¬ 
nize as being of exceeding importance. 
The destruction of potatoes by the Colorado potato beetle is one 
of the very common examples. Within the last several years destruc¬ 
tion of crops by the potato aphis has become evident, so much so that 
several railroads have endeavored to interest themselves to the extent 
of seeking relief for the growers of their respective districts. 
The University of California, as a result of work on the peach worm 
at Newcastle, Cal., produced in one year an increase of 500 cars of 
peaches, as reported by the local railroad officials. After eight years 
of work at Watsonville, Cal., the tonnage of apples was increased to 
the amount of over 800 cars. Upon the completion of mosquito exter¬ 
mination work at Bakersville, Cal., land values increased 200 per cent. 
The past season at Midland, Tex., arrangements w T ere made to take 
care of the crop of honey dew melons. One hundred refrigerator cars, 
and sufficient ice accordingly, were reserved for the purpose. An 
epidemic of aphis occurred, found the growers unprepared and une¬ 
quipped to meet it, with the result that the tonnage was reduced to 
only four cars. Here was a loss of tonnage, a loss of ice, ninety-six 
cars tied up when refrigerator cars were in demand elsewhere, a loss 
of revenue to the railroad and the refrigerator company of $150 per car. 
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