44 



•discuss here only such remedial measures as have been used suc- 

 cessfully by milling firms, including suggestions warranted by my 

 own experimental work. 



Cleanliness. — The only safeguard against insect pests in mills 

 is scrupulous cleanliness. This can be attained by constant sweep- 

 ing and dusting; bat a much more effective method has been per- 

 fected and used by one of my San Francisco correspondents, 

 whose procedure is as follows: "I am now employing," he writes, 

 "a echeme for cleaning our mill which I find the most efficacious, 

 taking it all around, of anything I have tried. I have run a half- 

 inch pipe under each ceiling of every story in the mill, and 

 every twenty-five feet I have a steam-cock, so that I can attach 

 a steam hose, on which I use a nozzle (the same as that used on 

 any garden hose). With this arrans^emeut I thoroughly steam all 

 the spouts, corners, garners, walls, posts, in fact every part of the 

 mill. It is the best cleaning apparatus for a mill that I have 

 seen. One man in one day with this hose will sweep the mill 

 cleaner of dust, dirt, and other accumulations, than twenty men 

 could do with broom and brush. In fact it is impossible to 

 clean out dust with broom and brush as well as it can be done 

 with steam. I recommend this scheme to all those with whom I 

 talk, and you can safely recommend it to all your correspondents 

 as being an excellent thing. There is no other apparatus that 

 will cleanse a mill so thoroughly." This is by far the most 

 practical method known to me, and I commend these steam pipes 

 to millers as a most necessary part of the equipment of a mill. 

 No new mill should be contemplated without incorporating the 

 "steam sweeper" in its plans and specifications. Such an equip- 

 ment will pay for itself in a short time, and a clean well-kept 

 mill certainly commends itself to public favor. The cautions to 

 be observed when steam is used in mills are discussed on p. 54. 

 'Great care should be taken not to allow loose material, empty 

 bags, boxes, and the like, to accumulate about a mill. All such 

 rubbish should be burned if it has no commercial value. 



FumifiaHon Box. — Every well-equipped mill should have a 

 tight wooden box, large enough to hold all the bags, boxes, or 

 barrels that usually come and go from the mill, or are in circula- 

 tion among local customers. Such material should be thoroughly 

 steamed, or subjected to the fumes of sulphur or bisulphide of car- 

 bon, before being permitted to re-enter the mill. Any second- 

 hand machinery that may be bought should be treated in the 

 same manner. Instances where the flour moth and other insect 

 pests have been carelessly introduced on old bags and second- 

 hand machinery have already been given. 



Metal Sj^outs. — A.ny substitution of one piece of apparatus for 

 another that will in any way make it more difficult for insects to 

 find lodgement in a mill, will certainly be productive of good 

 and lessen the chances of infestation. It is a well-known fact 

 that the flour moth finds spouts and elevator legs its most favor- 

 able quarter?. The wooden spouts are so arranged that the larvae 

 have no difficulty whatever in clinging to them, and consequently 

 great quantities of fiour are matted together and cause the trouble 



