In 1889 Professor Forbes calculated that the annual loss to the fruit-growers of Illinois from insect ravages was $2,375,000.  In 1892, insects caused to Nebraska apple-growers a loss computed at $2,000,000 and, in 1897, New York farmers lost $2,500,000 from that cause.  “In many sections of the Pacific Northwest the loss was from fifty to seventy-five per cent.” (Yearbook, page 470.)

FORESTS.—­“The annual losses occasioned by insect pests to forests and forest products (in the United States) have been estimated by Dr. A.D.  Hopkins, special agent in charge of forest insect investigations, at not less than $100,000,000....  It covers both the loss from insect damages to standing timber, and to the crude and manufactured forest products.  The annual loss to growing timber is conservatively placed at $70,000,000.”

[Illustration:  THE GYPSY MOTH, (Portheria dispar) 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.

                                       % OF
  PRODUCT VALUE 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 100,000,000
   Forest Products
 Products in Storage 100,000,000

 GRAND TOTAL $5,551,000,000 $795,100,000