332 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



It is advisable not to have the corn or wheat standing in the fields 

 in shocks any longer than is absolutely necessary, because the moths 

 will emerge from such places and be scattered through the neighborhood. 

 Neither is it a good plan to store the corn in. an unhusked condition for 

 the.same reason. If the corn be husked and shelled soon after it is cut 

 and stored in bulk in the granaries, the moths that will come out from 

 the kernels of corn that are situated very far below the surface will not 

 be able to crawl out of the stored seed, and will, therefore, be prevented 

 from pairing and depositing eggs, which will hatch and produce another 

 brood of larvae. Of course, the moths that happen to be in the upper 

 or outer tiers of the corn will escai>e and fly about the .bin and pair and 

 lay eggs upon the corn for succeeding generations. These moths that 

 can thus continue the species and cause the destruction of the seed 

 can be readily killed by the use of bisulphide of carbon, which you will 

 find described under the head of the Grain Weevil. 



The amount of injury to corn sustained by these little moths is some- 

 times quite considerable. In badly infested cases the corn has been known 

 to lose forty per cent of its weight and seventy-five per cent of it far- 

 inaceous matter. Corn or wheat badly infested with these insects is 

 not suitable for milling purposes, nor for food for man, and the kernels 

 that are hollowed out to any great extent will not germinate, and hence 

 the seed is greatly damaged for germinating purposes. Figure 70 shows 

 an ear of corn badly infested with this insect. Such corn is not suitable 

 for either food or seed purposes. 



Where one has suffered more or less from these moths, the careful 

 following out of the plans suggested under the grain weevil will pre- 

 vent future trouble. These insects not only infest corn and wheat, but 

 also other small grains, and develop and breed generation after genera- 

 tion in corn stored in cribs and other places about the farm. Het;ce it 

 is necessary, in order to combat this insect in corn, to attend to its destruc- 

 tion in other places, especially in the wheat. It must be understood, how- 

 ever, in this connection, that there is no wav of combating this pest in 

 c(>rn or other grains stored in the open bin or crib. 



For methods of fi.ghting this insect, see undo'- the Grain Weevil. 



THE GRAIN WEEVIL. 

 Calandra granaria. Linn. 



This minute beetle is about one-seventh of- an inch in length, and of 

 a glossy, chestnut-brown color ; the head is prolonged jnto a lieak, on the 

 end of which the mouth parts are placed, the angular antennae being 

 situated on the upper part of the beak. By referring to figure 71, c, 



