194 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 
odour, is heavier than air, and therefore sinks readily to the bottom and permeates the 
whole contents of any closed receptacle in which it is used to free grain of infesting 
insects. 
Great care must be taken in the use of this chemical on account of the extreme in- 
flammability both of the liquid and its vapour. No fire, such as a flume or even a lighted 
pipe or cigar, must be taken near either the liquid or the bin in which the pease have 
‘been treated, for some time after it is opened and the heavy and inflammable vapour has 
been let out. Treating seed of any kind with bisulphide of carbon has no deleterious 
effect upon the vitality of the seed nor upon its wholesomeness as food. 
The question sometimes arises whether pease badly infested with weevils can be 
used safely for feed. I find upon inquiry that it is a general practice to grind up weevilly 
pease and use them for feed, and no injury to stock has been reported so far. Mr. T. 
G. Raynor, answering this very question in the farmer's Advocate for March 1, 1897, 
says :—‘“ The cull pease from re-cleaning the pease at the seed houses, after being 
treated for the bug, are used for feeding purposes, and I have not heard of any injury.” 
Mr. Wellington Boulter, the Mayor of Picton, Ont., one of the most important centres 
of the seed-pea trade in Canada, also writes as follows :—‘‘ November 26.—Jn re your 
inquiry as to grinding pease infested with pea-weevil for pigs, injury to stock, &c., I 
would most emphatically say no injury could happen. I have ground up quantities in 
the past. I have also fed pigs with the pease in the natural state and never heard of 
any injury. In grinding, the bugs would be ground to powder.” 
Holding over seed.—Some people may not care to have such a dangerous material 
as bisuiphide of carbon about their premises. For such, an excellent remedy is holding 
over until the second year after harvesting any pease required for seed. This may be 
done in the case of pease without any injury to their vitality. They should be inclosed 
in paper or cotton bags, which will be sufficient to prevent the beetles from escaping 
when they emerge. At the time of sowing the pease, they should be examined and if 
necessary hand-picked; every grain which has been perforated should be discarded, as 
frequent experiments have proved that it is impossible to grow strong plants from 
weevilled pease, although unfortunately there is a widespread belief to the contrary. 
The Pra Mora (Semasia nigricana, Steph.).—This enemy of the pea, which has 
been treated of in former reports without a 
specific name, has this year been identified 
(from specimens bred from larve collected 
last year at Ottawa) through the kindness of 
Prof. C. H. Fernald, of Amherst, Mass., who 
writes :—Your pea insect was greased and 
unspread, and therefore difficult to determine; 
but I believe it to be Semasia nigricana. 
which is -now considered distinct from 
nebritana, Treits, under which it was placed 
asa synonym by Wocke in Staudinger’s Cata- 
Fig. 3.—The Pea Moth—natural size and enlarged. logue. It is probably identical with pisana, 
Guen., and has long been placed under the genus Semasia, but Meyrick in his Handbook 
of British Lepidoptera puts it under the genus Laspeyresia, Hbn. 
The accompanying figure has been kindly supplied for this report by Messrs. 
Blackie & Son, of Glasgow, Scotland. It is by John Curtis, and was used in his great 
work ‘“ Farm Insects.” 
Six specimens of the moth were bred, and all emerged between the 12th and 15th 
of July. As the cocoons were kept under natural conditions this is probably the time 
when the moths appear in nature, which would emphasize the value of the remedy 
already suggested of early sowing. The moth is small and inconspicuous, ¢ of an inch 
long when the wings are closed, mouse-coloured, bronzed towards the tips of the wings, 
silvery gray beneath. The only markings are along the front margin or costa and near 
the apex of the upper wing. The costal marks consist of about 10 or 12 short black 
triangular streaks, separated from each other by similar clear white dashes all directed 
backwards ; two of the black streaks, however, the third and fifth, which start from 
