Very Destructive to the Finest Shade Trees
There are other insect damages that we will not pause to enumerate here. They relate to cattle, horses, sheep and stored grain products of many kinds. Even cured tobacco has its pest, a minute insect known as the cigarette beetle, now widespread in America and "frequently the cause of very heavy losses."
The millions of the insect world are upon us. Their cost to us has been summed up by Mr. Marlatt in the table that appears below.
| Annual Values Of Farm Products, And Losses Chargeable To Insect Pests. | |||
| Official Report in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1904. | |||
| PRODUCT | VALUE | PERCENTAGE OF LOSS | AMOUNT OF LOSS |
| Cereals | $2,000,000,000 | 10 | $200,000,000 |
| Hay | 530,000,000 | 10 | 53,000,000 |
| Cotton | 600,000,000 | 10 | 60,000,000 |
| Tobacco | 53,000,000 | 10 | 5,300,000 |
| Truck Crops | 265,000,000 | 20 | 53,000,000 |
| Sugars | 50,000,000 | 10 | 5,000,000 |
| Fruits | 135,000,000 | 20 | 27,000,000 |
| Farm Forests | 110,000,000 | 10 | 11,000,000 |
| Miscellaneous Crops | 58,000,000 | 10 | 5,800,000 |
| -------------- | ------------ | ||
| Total | $3,801,000,000 | $420,100,000 | |
| Animal Products | 1,750,000,000 | 10 | 175,000,000 |
| Natural Forests and Forest Products | .. | 100,000,000 | |
| Products in Storage | .. | 100,000,000 | |
| -------------- | ------------ | ||
| GRAND TOTAL | $5,551,000,000 | $795,100,000 | |
The millions of the insect world are upon us. The birds fight them for us, and when the birds are numerous and have nestlings to feed, the number of insects they consume is enormous. They require absolutely nothing at our hands save the privilege of being let alone while they work for us! In fighting the insects, our only allies in nature are the songbirds, woodpeckers, shore-birds, swallows and martins, certain hawks, moles, shrews, bats, and a few other living creatures. All these wage war at their own expense. The farmers might just as well lose $8,250,000 through a short apple crop as to pay out that sum in labor and materials in spraying operations. And yet, fools that we are, we go on slaughtering our friends, and allowing others to slaughter them, under the same brand of fatuous folly that leads the people of Italy to build anew on the smoking sides of Vesuvius, after a dozen generations have been swept away by fire and ashes.
In the next chapter we will consider the work of our friends, The Birds.