208 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 7 



tection to the grain. On the contrary, it insures practically all of the 

 weevils being successfully transferred from the field to the crib and in 

 the crib the husk gives far more protection to the weevils already at 

 work on the ears than it does to the corn. 



The practice of storing while wet or of wetting as it is being stored, 

 is supposed to facilitate a heating of the corn which will destroy the 

 weevils and not injure the corn. It is apparently true that it is possi- 

 ble by a natural heating of a mass of immature or damp corn to produce 

 a temperature that will accomplish this result, and this does occa- 

 sionally happen, but only in a very small fraction of 1 per cent of the 

 attempts is the desired benefit achieved. It is safe to say that up to 

 the present time we do not understand the necessary coincident con- 

 ditions of degree of moisture, volume of mass, and tightness of crib, 

 etc., well enough to advise anyone to depend upon this heating for 

 weevil control. The much more common effect of this excess of 

 moisture in the storage bin is to soften the grain so that the insects can 

 work so much the faster and to multiply the molds and other fungi 

 growing therein. 



The salting of the corn renders the husks more palatable to live 

 stock but, on the other hand appears to increase rather than reduce 

 the insect attack. Salt naturally gathers moisture from the atmos- 

 phere in every prolonged period of high humidity and thus renders the 

 corn softer and more susceptible to attack both of insects and of fungi. 

 A practical test of this treatment with close observations as to the 

 condition at beginning, during and at close of storage test, showed that 

 the corn from the salted bin weighed only 0.9 as much for the same 

 volume as did the average of nine other tests having corn from the 

 same field, stored at the same time, also with the husk on but with no 

 especial treatment. The corn from the salted crib was the lightest 

 of any in sixteen tests and only 85 per cent as heavy as similar corn 

 fumigated with CS % at time of storage or as untreated corn which had 

 long, tight husk covering. 



Weevil Resistance in Corn Varieties 



It is a matter of common observation that different varieties of corn 

 grown side by side, with all planting, cultural and soil conditions 

 similar, may vary greatly in their susceptibility to or resistance to 

 insect injury. The two most important factors in producing this 

 variation are generally comparative rapidity in development to matur- 

 ity of the grain and the relative length and tightness of the husk cov- 

 ering. For several years we have been growing side by side a number 

 of the most promising weevil resistant varieties that we could secure 

 and have compared these with commonly grown varieties which have 



