400 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



kernel, and sometimes in the crevices between the kernels. 

 The foregoing minute description, which is taken from per- 

 fectly fresh and uninjured specimens, will serve to remove any 

 doubt as to the genus and species to which this corn-moth is 

 to be referred. 



It has been proved by experience that the ravages of the two 

 kinds of grain-moths, whose history has been now given, can 

 be effectually checked by drying the damaged grain in an oven 

 or kiln ; and that a heat of one hundred and sixty-seven de- 

 grees, by Fahrenheit's thermometer, continued during twelve 

 hours, will kill the insects in all their forms. Indeed the heat 

 may be reduced to one hundred and four degrees, with the 

 same effect, but the grain must then be exposed to it for the 

 space of two days. Insect-mills, somewhat like coffee-roasters 

 on a large scale, have been invented in France, for the purpose 

 of heating and agitating the infested wheat, by which the eggs 

 and larvfB of the little corn-moth, or BiitaUs, are destroyed. 

 Fumigation, in close vessels, with the gas of burning charcoal, 

 is found to be an effectual remedy ; and Dr. Herpin states that 

 this process neither imparts any bad flavor to the grain, nor 

 does it impair its power of vegetating. He recommends also 

 the early threshing and winnowing of wheat, as tending to 

 preserve it.* This, indeed, is advocated by the most experi- 

 enced wheat cultivators in this country, particularly if done by 

 machinery; and it should not be deferred later than the end of 

 July. The concussion and agitation undergone by the wheat 

 in being threshed and winnowed, as intimated by Dr. Herpin, 

 Mr. Judah, and others, is supposed to dislodge the eggs and 

 kill the larvae of the insect. With the same view, Mr. Owen 

 recommends passing the new wheat through " a rubbing mill, 

 such as is used in Virginia and other large wheat growing 

 districts, to ensure first-rate flour;" after which the wheat may 

 be kept in bulk, or may be immediately ground. If a large 

 surface of grain be exposed in the barn, the granary, or the 



* See Duponclicl. L6pidopt. de France. Supplem. Tome IV., pp. 450-4*3 ; 

 and Mr. Curtis'a paper in the Journ. Royal Society of Agricult. of England. 

 Vol. VII., pp. 87-89. 



