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 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. * * * * * CHAPTER XXIII. THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS To-day, from Halifax to Los Angeles, and from Key West to Victoria, a deadly contest is being waged. The fruit-growers, farmers, forest owners and "park people" are engaged in a struggle with the insect hordes for the possession of the trees, shrubs and crops. Go out into the open, with your eyes open, and you will see it for yourself. Millions of dollars are being expended in it. Look at this exhibit of what is going on around me, at this very moment,--July 19, 1912: The bag insects, in thousands, are devouring the leaves of locust and maple trees. The elm beetles are trying to devour the elms; and spraying is in progress. The hickory-bark borers are slaughtering the hickories; and even some park people are neglecting to take the measures necessary to stop it! The tent caterpillars are being burned. The aphis (scale insects) are devouring the tops of the _white potatoes_ in the New York University school garden, just as the potato beetle does.