176 SKETCHES OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



It might be supposed that when once the wheat is 

 fairly housed in granaries, it must be quit for ever of its 

 insect enemies ; but here another evil besets it, in the 

 form of the grain-weevil. This is a small beetle, the fe- 

 male of which deposits her eggs upon corn in granaries. 

 The young larva burrows into the grain, eating the inte- 

 rior, and afterwards escaping in the perfect form through 

 a very small puncture, which leaves the grain to all 

 appearance perfect, while it is really nothing more than 

 an empty shell. The best preservative against this evil is 

 perfect ventilation, and a constant sifting of the grain. 



Another pest of the granary is the corn-worm, the 

 caterpillar of the corn-moth. The perfect insect appears 

 as a small moth in May, June, and July, frequenting 

 granaries, and flying about only at night. It attacks 

 rye, oats, and barley, as well as wheat, fluttering about 

 the grain and depositing its eggs. In a few days small 

 whitish maggots are hatched, and these soon penetrate 

 the grain, closing up the hole by which they enter, and 

 then feeding upon the interior. When about to change 

 into the chrysalis state, the maggot issues from the 

 grain and hides itself in cracks and fissures in the floor, 

 where it remains until the spring calls it forth in the 

 perfect form. Sprinkling the floor with strong white- 

 wine vinegar and salt, is recommended as a precaution 

 against this enemy of the grain. 



Besides all these enemies among insects, the wheat 

 crop has others among plants. Rust and smut are only 

 common names for two varieties of parasitic fungus, 

 which derive their sustenance from the chaff-scales of 

 wheat, and from the grain itself. The former is of an 

 orange-yellow colour, and is chiefly found scattered over 

 the inner surface of the outer chaff-scales, which it raises 

 into blisters. Smut is a brownish black dust, filling the 

 kernel of the wheat with a greasy and stinking powder. 

 It soon causes the seed to swell, and to show evident 

 tokens of disease. These two sources of mischief are, 

 however, less serious than mildew, which seems to attack 



