8ko. 12.] 



ENTOMOLOGICAL. 



207 



We know places where this insect is so troublesome to farmers, that it is only 

 by great care that the}' can keep corn or wheat over from one crop to an- 

 other. In west Tennessee and northwest Mississippi they are excessively 

 annoying. 



Several remedies have been tried, with success in some cases and failure 

 in others, under apparently the same circumstances. We will name some 

 of them. After the grain is thorouglily cleaned, spread it upon white sheets, 

 of boards, or a tin roof, or, if convenient, a flat rock is better than either, 

 and some use a clay floor, and let it lie in the sun until it gets hot, and then 

 put it up in tight casks. Kiln-drying at 176'^ kills the insect and the germi- 

 nating power of the corn at the same time. If grain is placed in tight casks, 

 and the gas arising from burning charcoal conveyed to it by a tube, which 

 may be iron next the fire, and flexible tube next the cask, for convenience, so 

 as to fumigate the grain, the insect is destroyed without injury to the germ. 

 An infusion of the fumes of chloroform will kill these or any other insects 

 in a close vessel. Even a few drops put in a bottle with insects, corked up, 

 deprives them of life directly. It will not, however, destroy eggs, as the 

 heating of the corn does. Ileating it, by piling it up damp, has been prac- 

 ticed ; but care must be taken, if tiiis is practiced, that it does not overheat 

 and get musty. If it docs, it should be washed before grinding. 



Lime has been effectively tried, entirely preventing the ravages of the 

 insect, by storing the grain, ready prepared for the mill, in tight casks or 

 bins, and covering by sifting over tlie top an inch or two deep of finely- 

 powdered lime. Whenever the grain is wanted for the mill, run it through 

 the winnowing machine, and blow out the lime. A trifle will adhere to tlie 

 furze of the kernels, but it does no harm — it is rather beneficial to the flour 

 or meal. 



244. The Rice WceviL^This is another pestiferous insect, which not only 

 destroys rice, but attacks other grain upon the upland portion of a rice 

 plantation. This weevil {Calandra orysce) resembles the one whose ravages 

 we have noticed in 243, which is the Cdlandm granaria. All true weevils 

 are beetles, with long snouts, and only dLi)redatc upon dry grain. 



;Many of us consumers of rice have seen the rice weevil, which has 

 liatched out of eggs deposited by the female parent, one in each grain, 

 wlierc it hatches, and the young larva eats out all the substance, making 

 food of its habitation. By-and-by the weevil comes out, and the sexes meet, 

 and the female deposits its eggs in sound grains, and so on until all aro 

 destroyed. 



When very plenty in rice, it makes anything b^it a savory dish. It is the 

 same with wheat. SVe have eaten bread that tasted Jis though wo had about 

 an even mixture of bread and meat. " Weevilly flour," we have heard said, 

 was not unwholesome. Perhaps not ; to us it is most decidedly unpalatable, 

 and no art of cooking wheat or rice will hide the weevil flavor. It looks 

 and tastes of weevil, even in tlie buttermilk and saleratus biscuit of the moet 

 liberal user of that salt. 



