11 Feb., 1918.] Wheat Storage Problems. 117 



The question of the utilization of power-alcoliol as a fuel for internal 

 combustion engines will be dealt with in a later article. Copies of the 

 report may be had gratis on application to the Secretary, Advisory 

 Council of Science and Industry, 314 Albert-street, East Melbourne. 



WHEAT STORAGE PROBLEMS. 



Protection from Weevils. 



The problems affecting wheat sitorage, or as it might be more accurately 

 described, wheat preservation, are of extreme urgency in view of the 

 prospect of- a serious shortage in the food supply of the world as one 

 of the results of the war, and it is obviously a matter of exceptional 

 importance to prevent, as far as possible, the destruction and loss of 

 grain in store through the ravages of pests. 



Recognising this the British Government asked the Royal Society of 

 London to arrange an investigation into the damage done by insects 

 to grain in store throughout the Empire. 



The Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Advisory Council 

 of Science and Industry received, through the Prime Minister's Depart- 

 ment, in October, 1916, a request from the Royal Society that a com- 

 mittee should be apj^ointed in Australia to co-operate with similar com- 

 mittees in England and Canada in this investigation. Reports were 

 obtained from the Government Entomologists of each State, and it was 

 shown that considerable losses were caused annually in Australia from 

 grain weevils and other pests. The Executive Committee thereupon 

 appointed a special committee to make further investigations. 



This special committee included Mr. Leo Rossell, representing the 

 milling industry: Professor W. A. Haswell, F.R.S., Professor of Zoology 

 in the University of Sydney; and Mr. W. W. Froggatt, Government 

 Entomologist, New South Wales. Mr. F. B. Quthrie, chemist to the 

 Department of Agriculture of New South Wales, subsequently joined 

 the committee. The progress report prepared by this special committee 

 has now been published in Bulletin 5 of the Advisory Council, and can 

 be obtained post free from the Secretary, 314 Albert-street, East Mel- 

 bourne. The report indicates that only the two grain weevils {Calandra 

 <iran.aria and C . ort/zae) demand special measures on account of their 

 destructive effects on stored grain, that the development of weevils in 

 wheat and their increase in number may be checked by not using old 

 bags which may be weevil-infested or storing in buildings likewise 

 infested, and that bags of weevil-infested wheat should not be brought 

 into contact or near that which is sound, for before wheat can become 

 infested there must be a female to lay her aggs in the grains of wheat. 

 It is only when the perfect insect, after going through the various stages 

 of its larval existence, emerges through a tiny hole in the grain that the 

 damage is evident, and, except during the pupating state, destruction is 

 going on during the whole life of the insect. Under suitable conditions 

 it takes from nineteen to twenty-two days from the egg to the adult 

 beetle, and in three months in on© experiment forty weevils produced 

 3,056 descendants. Under the present system of handling wheat the 

 destruction of weevil, once it has gained access to the bagged grain, 

 seems hopeless; many methods of fumigating grain have been tried, and 

 so far the most effective is that of poisoning with the fumes of carbon 

 dioxide, but with bagged wheat this is not applicable save at a pro- 

 hibitive cost. Sun-dried wheat contains only 4.7 per cent, of moisture. 



