210 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



64 VICTORIA, A. 1901 



letter I had already planned to treat my pease next year. Pease should be threshed 

 as soon as ripe and immediately treated, before the weevil has attained full size or 

 ■done much damage. If stored away in a barn and threshed in October, the bug ha3 

 made its full growth and the damage is done.' — H. Pettit. 



There are many valuable suggestions in the above letters, and I am convinced 

 that if pea-growers on a large scale, as well as those who only grow a small quantity 

 for their own use, would regularly fumigate \^'ith carbon bisulphide, in a very 

 few years this united effort would have an appreciable effect on the unnecessary loss 

 whidi occurs every year in this important crop. I believe that most farmers in the 

 districts where the Pea Weevil occurs are pretty well acquainted with the life habits 

 •of the insect, and also know that the fumigation treatment is effective. By following 

 the instructions which have been frequently given, and which are repeated here, 

 there is really very little danger ; but of course the work must be done with care. 

 Most of our large seed-growers and seed-dealers do regularly treat their seed, but I 

 think a change for the better might be made by doing this work earlier. Not only is 

 the carbon bisulphide mo're easily vaporized in hot weather, but its effect on the 

 insects is much more fatal than in cold weather or later in the season, when the 

 weevils are in the torpid state in which they pass the winter. The sooner the fumi- 

 .gation is done after the pease are ripe, naturally, the less the seeds will have been 

 ■eaten away by the grubs and injured. Moreover, by postponing the fumigation until 

 iate in the autumn, in some seasons a large proportion of the weevils will have left 

 the pease and escaped before the operation. 



Any farmer can treat his own seed easily and with perfect safety in the following 

 way : Place the quantity of pease to be treated in an ordinary 45 gallon coal-oil 

 barrel, which will hold about five bushels of pease. The quantity of carbon bisulphide 

 which has been found necessary to destroy the weevil is one ounce to every hundred 

 pounds of seed — the treatment to last for 48 hours. Therefore, for the above 

 •quantity, as pease weigh from 60 to 65 pounds to the bushel, 3 ounces would be 

 required if the barrel were filled. The chemical may be poured right on to the pease, 

 and the barrel must then be covered quickly and closely, first with a thick cloth or 

 «anvas which has been damped in water, and then with boards. The carbon bisul- 

 phide will not injure the seed in any way, either as to vitality or as to its whole- 

 someness as food. Carbon bisulphide is a colourless liquid which readily turns into 

 vapour when exposed to the air, except in very cold weather. This vapour is quite 

 invisible, but has a very strong unpleasant odour. It is heavier than air and there- 

 fore sinks quickly to the bottom of and permeates the contents of any closed recep- 

 tacle in which it is used to free grain of infesting insects. It is, however, extremely 

 inflammable both in the liquid and vapour form ; consequently great care must be 

 taken not to })ring any flame, not even a lighted pipe or cigar, near the liquid or 

 barrel during the treatment. The pease or other grain must be left in the tightly 

 closed barrel for 48 hours to destroy the weevils ; it will therefore be best to place 

 the barrel in an outside shed at some distance from the living-house. 



The late sowing of pease is certainly useful in preventing attack by Pea Weevil, 

 "but the method is not in much favour with farmers, because late sown peas in most 

 seasons are liable to be so badly attacked by mildew as to reduce very much the value 

 of the crop. 



Holding over seed. — An easy remedy and an excellent one when only a small 

 ■quantity of seed is required, is to hold over until the second year after harvesting. 

 This must be done in close bags so as to prevent the escape of the beetle which 

 naturally emerge before the end of the second season, and as they cannot perforate 

 l>ags even when these are made only of paper, they must die ; for, unlike the Bean 

 Weevil, they cannot propagate in dry grain. The vitality of pease is not injured to 

 any appreciable degree by this delay of one year before sowing. At the time of 

 sowing the seed should be examined and if necessary hand picked ; every grain 

 which has been perforated should be discarded, as it has been proved that it is im- 

 possible to grow strong plants from weevilled pease. 



