August, '19] DOANE: AUSTRALIAN WHEAT WEEVILS 309 



The first few lots of this wheat came on some of the steamers that 

 ply regularly between San Francisco and AustraUa. These steamers 

 make the trip in about twenty days. Most of the wheat, however, 

 has been shipped on sailing vessels requiring eighty or ninety days 

 or more to make the trip. I am told that one vessel was at sea nearly 

 six months before it finally reached San Francisco. 



Of course these long trips, mostly through tropical waters, give 

 time for the wheat to become thoroughly warmed. Unfortunately 

 we did not take any temperature tests in the holds of these vessels, but 

 several times it was found that the wheat in the sacks would feel very 

 warm and this heat would be retained for several hours after the sacks 

 were stacked on the docks. So the number of insects in these cargoes 

 was doubtless much greater when the ships reached San Francisco 

 than when they left Australia, as conditions were almost ideal for 

 their development. But the great amount of wheat that had been 

 cut by the weevils and the masses of insects that were found on and 

 throughout the sacks that came on the steamers in the earlier ship- 

 ments, showed that most of the damage must have been done while 

 the wheat was still in storage in Australia. 



There was a great deal of difference in the amount of infestation 

 in the different sacks in all of the shipments. Some sacks showed 

 but little injury due to the beetles, in other sacks we would find 80 

 per cent to 90 per cent of the grain injured or destroyed by the 

 weevils. A handful of the grain taken from the sack would sometimes 

 contain from six to fifteen or more weevils. These badly infested 

 sacks were usually covered with the beetles that were coming from the 

 wheat, and the flour or dust from the injured grains was sifting through 

 the exit holes made by the beetles. 



In San Francisco most of this wheat was hauled from the docks 

 to the mills and parried by conveyers directly to the bins where it 

 was stored until needed. Usually the miller began to draw on this 

 supply at once, for few, if any, of the companies had any reserve. 

 Before the wheat was stored in the bins it passed through screens to 

 take out the straws, unthrashed heads and other large rubbish. As 

 it was drawn off for use it passed through suction cleaners that drew 

 off the light grain, weed seeds, weevils, etc. These screenings were 

 placed in sacks and disposed of in various ways. If they contained 

 a good deal of grain they were often sold for chicken or hog or sheep 

 feed, or ground in the atrition mill for ground feed. Some of the lots 

 that contained but little wheat and much smut and many beetles and 

 weed seeds, were burned or thrown into the bay. 



Although we all recognized that burning was the safest way to 

 handle these screenings, it did not scorn achisablc to destroy the lots 



