215 
A keen interest was awakened in the subject, as made manifest by 
the articles in the columns of the daily papers of Chicago and by the 
correspondence with this Department. It finally assumed such dimen- 
sions that, at the telegraphic request of Mr. Buchanan, I was author- 
ized by the Secretary of Agriculture to proceed to Chicago in order to 
make a personal survey of the matter and such recommendations as 
might be deemed advisable. A week of active work at the fair grounds, 
with the assistance of Mr. Chittenden, who had been, as already indi- 
cated, engaged for some time previously in investigating the matter, 
enabled me to draw up a preliminary report, which was addressed to 
Mr. Buchanan, embracing the essential features in the case, a list of the 
principal species found, and recommendations for the treatment of the 
infested material. This report, omitting the list of species, which is 
amplified in another place in this article, is reproduced herewith: 
In view of its importance and of the interest which has been recently manifested 
in the subject of the insects that are injuring the various exhibits of agricultural 
products, and especially of grains, at the exposition, I have concluded to give you 
a brief statement of the actual facts. 
No one recognizes more fully than I do the possibilities of harm from the introduc- 
tion and distribution of undesirable insect pests, from which the United States has 
hitherto been free, or of the converse possibility of the injury we might do to other 
countries by sending them from this country undesirable species which they do not 
possess. The fact that Secretary Morton and Assistant Secretary Willits, of the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, are equally alive to the importance of the matter 
is manifest by my presence here. 
The following review of the condition of things is based on a personal survey of 
the field by myself and by careful examinations made during the last few weeks by 
Mr. F. H. Chittenden, one of ‘my assistants, who has been specially charged with 
this work. ; 
Some forty-odd species have been discovered and more or less carefully examined 
and studied. These may be divided into two categories, viz: 
(1) Those which are already common in the United States and are for the most 
part cosmopolitan species; and 
(2) Those which are either unknown or limited in their distribution in the United 
States. 
By far the larger number of the insects affecting the exhibits of food products 
belong to the first category, and, in fact, almost everyone of the two dozen species 
contained in the exhibit of the Division of Entomology of the Department of Agri- 
culture, as affecting stored grain, and enumerated on pp. 46 and 47 of the catalogue 
of said exhibit (Bulletin No. 31 of this Division), are to be found on the Exposition 
grounds. A number of the species found have no popular name, and their enu- 
meration will convey little information to the general reader; yet I will give the 
list as a text for my conclusions and recommendations. [Omitted because ampli- 
fied further on. ] 
The insects in the above list which have caused the greatest amount of damage 
are the two which are most commonly found in stored grain and other cereal 
products, viz, Nos. land 14. These are the two that were sent on to me at Wash- 
ington by one of the State commissioners, and have been referred to in the news- 
papers as “the Weevil.” 
_ No. 1, or the Rice Weevil, is believed to be a native of India, where it has been 
known to be an enemy to stored grain for over a century, and, perhaps, from time 
immemorial. The annual loss occasioned by it alone to wheat exported from India 
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