27 



weevils, could be made to slide directly into a continuous spiral screw 

 conveyor at the rear of the gin stands. The screw conveyors for the 

 separate gins could easily be made continuous, and the discharge from 

 the full battery of gins could be passed through compression rollers 

 at the end. 



From the preceding paragraphs it will be seen that by the installa- 

 tion of cleaning droppers in the seed-cotton storage house and of 

 special cleaners in the ginhouse proper, a great majority of the weevils 

 could be brought under control. Nevertheless, with any of the devices 

 that have been studied, it is apparent that a number of weevils reach 

 the gin itself, and that a considerable percentage of these escape alive, 

 either in the seed or at the mote board. These two avenues of escape 

 illustrate the greatest weakness, as far as the boll weevil is concerned, 

 of the various cleaners which are perfectly constructed for the objects 

 the inventors have had in mind — i. e., simply removing the trash from 

 the cotton. Further inventions may possibly bring about still further 

 perfection in this system of cleaning cotton, but at present manufac- 

 turers should devote some attention to the construction of contrivances 

 which will eliminate the weevils from the seed and motes. There 

 would apparently be no insurmountable mechanical difficulties in caus- 

 ing the motes to run to the seed as it falls from the gin. If this could 

 be done and the combined seed and motes could be cleaned by passing 

 along screens in connection with some agitating device, like a picker 

 roller, or over an oscillating perforated bottom, the weevils would be 

 shaken below and there collected by a spiral conveyor and destroj^ed 

 by means of a pair of compression rollers. It is believed that practi- 

 cally all of the boll weevils in the seed could be destroyed by these 

 means. In case of the use of a screen and picker roller, at least where 

 two fans are used in the elevating system, it would be an easy matter 

 to obtain the desired suction, without involving any additional horse- 

 power whatever. In case of the use of the oscillating bottom, the 

 onl}' additional horsepower necessary would be the very small amount 

 required for causing the agitation and for running the compression 

 rollers. Either device might easily be introduced between the seed 

 chute at the gin and the blower, and would thus not interfere materially 

 with the present course of the seed. 



It will be seen that the advantage in conveying the motes to the 

 seed, as suggested in this plan, is that the weevils from both may be 

 extracted at one operation. However, it would be perfectly feasible 

 to collect the motes independently by means of a spiral conveyor and 

 to destroy the weevils contained therein by means of a pair of rollers. 



It seems to the writer possible that suction alone might be utilized 

 to separate the weevils from the seed as they are dropped from the 

 saws to the seed chute. At this stage the seeds are thoroughly sepa- 



