oss from the Hessian fly is
very heavy, at other times comparatively light, yet there are few years
when the loss is less than ten per cent. of the total crop from this
insect alone,--which meant last year a loss of 72,500,000 bushels.

The chinch-bug is responsible for the loss of five per cent., or one
bushel out of every twenty. It attacks the straw, causing the heads of
wheat to fall over and wither away.

The injury done by the green-bug comes just as the wheat begins to
ripen, the tiny green creatures attaching themselves in great numbers to
the heads of the wheat. Other insects which prey on the wheat crop are
grasshoppers, the wheat midge, cutworms and army-worms.

If it were not for the attacks of these various pests the wheat crop
would be at least one-fifth larger than it is. Instead of 725,000,000
bushels, it would be 870,000,000; which, with wheat at a dollar a
bushel, amounts to a loss of nearly $150,000,000. Further, the world
loses all this valuable bread-stuff.

Oats, rye and barley suffer far less than wheat from insect ravages but
they are all attacked by the same insects, and on the whole, much damage
is done to them each year.

Hay, clover, and alfalfa have their enemies which destroy a considerable
part of the crops. The locusts and caterpillars, the army-worms and
cutworms are the best known, but the tiny leaf-hoppers, which spring up
at every step as we walk across the path or lawn, and the web-worms and
grass-worms and grubs which work about the roots of the plants all do
their part in lowering the production.

The principal insect enemies of cotton are the cotton boll-weevil, the
boll-worm, the cotton red spider, and the cotton-leaf worm. The control
of the boll-weevil is considered one of the most serious problems
confronting the agricultural men of the country. In the first years
after its introduction, it reduced the cotton crop fully fifty per
cent., and was the cause, not only of serious loss to the farmers, but
of the closing of the cotton mills in New England, of a scarcity of
cotton cloth and a decided rise in its price. The boll-weevil is a
beetle about a quarter of an inch in length. This little beetle eats
into the heart of each boll, which soon falls to the ground.

The cotton-leaf worm formerly caused heavy damage, as much as
$20,000,000 to $30,000,000 a year, but the loss has been greatly reduced
by the war which farmers have waged against it. It is still estimated at
from