aughter of song and other insect-eating birds both in the South and
North, the destruction of the national wealth by insects forges to the
front as a subject of vital importance. The logic of the situation is so
simple a child can see it. Short crops mean higher prices. If ten per
cent of our vegetable food supply is destroyed by insects, as certain as
fate we will feel it _in the increased cost of living_.

I would like to place Mr. Marlatt's report in the hands of every man,
boy and school-teacher in America; but I have not at my disposal the
means to accomplish such a task. I cannot even print it here in full,
but the vital facts can be stated, briefly and in plain figures.

* * * * *

CROPS AND INSECTS.

CORN.--The principal insect enemies of corn are the chinch bug,
corn-root worm (_Diabrotica longicornis_), bill bug, wire worm,
boll-worm or ear-worm, cut-worm, army worm, stalk worm, grasshopper,
and plant lice, in all a total of about fifty important species! Several
of these pests work secretly. At husking time the wretched ear-worm that
ruins the terminal quarter or fifth of an immense number of ears, is
painfully in evidence. The root-worms work insidiously, and the moles
and shrews are supposed to attack them and destroy them. The corn-root
worm is charged with causing an annual loss of two per cent of the corn
crop, or $20,000,000; the chinch bug another two per cent; the boll or
ear-worm two per cent more. The remaining insect pests are charged with
two per cent, which makes eight per cent in all, or a total of
$80,000,000 lost each year to the American farmer through the ravages of
insects. This is not evenly distributed, but some areas suffer more than
others.

[Illustration: THE CUT-WORM, (_Peridroma Sancia_)
Very Destructive to Crops]

WHEAT.--Of all our cereal crops, wheat is the one that suffers most from
insects. There are three insects that cause to the wheat industry an
annual loss of about ten per cent. The _chinch bug_ is the worst, and it
is charged with five per cent ($20,000,000) of the total loss. The
_Hessian fly_ comes next in order, and occasionally rolls up enormous
losses. In the year 1900, that insect caused to Indiana and Ohio alone
the loss of 2,577,000 _acres_ of wheat, and the total cost to us of that
insect in that year "undoubtedly approached $100,000,000." Did that
affect the price of wheat or not? If not, then there is no such thing as
a