FARMERS' REGISTER— MOTII-WEEYIL. 



327 



thein all, I have often thought of givir^ you my 

 opinion on its origin ; but being advanced in years, 

 and not much in the habit of writing, only when 

 compelled by business, 1 have put it oti', promising 

 myself at some future day to make the communi- 

 cation : fearing I may still neglect it, I will give 

 you one reason why I differ with all the writers 

 that I have seen on this subject. They all say that 

 the egg is deposited by some insect in each grain 

 while in a soft state. If this is true, I should like 

 to know how the insect makes its its way through 

 the husks or shuck of corn when it is five or six 

 double, in such manner as to lay them in each 

 grain ? I think all will agree with me, that it is 

 impossible ; then how does the egg get in each 

 grain ? It must be the natural production of the 

 grain, or some insect deposits something on the 

 bloom or tassel, and it is scattered through the pol- 

 len to each grain, for each grain has its silk. Get 

 any of your friends to gather an ear of corn this 

 fall, with all its husk on ; put it in some place where 

 no insect can get to it until next spring ; then take 

 the husk off and suspend it with any covering that 

 will let air, moisture and heat get to it ; I will war- 

 rant the weevil will come out. These hints, if at- 

 tended to by some of your numerous and well in- 

 formed readers, will enable some of them to do 

 more justice to the subject than I can myself." 



My own opinions for a long time agreed with 

 that which was stated the second in order. I owe 

 my change and my present views to a letter from 

 Kentucky, which is published in the American 

 Farmer, p. 74, signed T. S. and is one of those al- 

 luded to above by Mr. Smith, as altogether unsat- 

 isfactory. This letter is sent for republication in 

 the Farmers' Register.* I confess that at first I 

 attached but little importance to its statements ; 

 and it furnishes one of the many instances which 1 

 have known, that a preconceived false opinion will 

 cause us often to read without believing-, and al- 

 most without notice, other opinions from which we 

 might gather correction and truth. In this case, 

 however, I was induced to make some experiments 

 which will be presently reported, and which, I 

 tliink, leave no doubt that all the foregoing opi- 

 nions are wrong, and that the last referred to is, 

 in the main correct, viz : That there is o continu- 

 ed re-production of the weevil, in short spaces of 

 time throughout the warm season. But tlie obser- 

 vations of the writer, however ingenious and cor- 

 rect, were not made with the accuracy which ex- 

 periments require, and were liable, in particular, 

 to one important objection. The parcel of grain 

 on which the observations were made, and on 

 which he so nearly traced, by the eye, the conti- 

 nued re-protluction of weevil, had not been ex- 

 cluded from the access of the insects from with- 

 out : and therefore, there was no positive ])roof 

 that the eggs, late as was their hatching, might 

 not have been laid in the field — or that as many 

 insects might have been produced (according to 

 another opinion) without eggs. I admit that what 

 T. S. saw (through a magnifying glass) of eggs, 

 and young maggots, was strongly in favor of his 

 views, and in opposition to the others ; but obser- 

 vations so made are extremely delusive, and could 

 not be relied on, unless the progress of a single in- 

 sect had been observed separately, and traced from 

 the depositing of the egg, to the maggot being 



* It will follow this coiTimuiiication, 



sufficiently grown to establish its being the wee- 

 vil. Several other kinds of insects are found on 

 bulks of cleaned wheat, and a mistake might easi- 

 ly have been made of one for another. But it 

 seemed possible to institute such experiments as 

 would supply this defect, and establish beyond 

 doubt the truth or falsehood not only of this, but of 

 any other of the opinions mentioned above. With 

 this view, the following experiments were planned 

 and executed. The results prove the correctness 

 of the supposition of the continued re-production 

 of weevil: and this, taken in connection with the 

 fact that some few weevil eggs are certainly depo- 

 sited on corn while yet in the field, (and possibly 

 also on wheat,) will explain satisfactorily the means 

 for the supply, and of the astonishing increase of 

 weevil in our cribs of corn, and stacks of wheat. 

 The whole cause of difficulty respecting the origin 

 and propagation of weevil has been owing to eve- 

 ry person supposing the eggs to have been deposit- 

 ed in some one manner, or at some one period — 

 either altogether in the green state, or altogether 

 in the dry — or not at all. ' The obstinacy with 

 which we all have maintained some one of these 

 different views has kept us blind to the true origin 

 and manner of re-production — which opinion when 

 once examined and admitted, will perhaps seem so 

 clear and undeniable, that the simple annunciation 

 of the facts would be enough to insure their accep- 

 tation. But the extracts which I have quoted, and 

 every opinion which may have been heretofore ex- 

 pressed on this subject by writers and practical 

 farmers, will acquit me of using uncalled for trou- 

 ble, or adducing superfluous proof, for the purpose 

 of opposing prevailing errors. 



The experiments were made as follows. 



June 24th, 1833. The corn in my crib, which 

 had been shucked last autumn soon after it was 

 hard, Avas examincdclosely, without finding a wee- 

 vil, or any holes in the grain showing that any had 

 already escaped. Took four ears of white flint or 

 rare-ripe corn (which is much the most subject to 

 be weevil-eaten,) for my experiment. These were 

 examined well through a magnifying lens, with- 

 out discovering any egg attached to the outside of 

 the grain. 



EXPERIMENT I. 



One of these ears. A, was placed in a large 

 drawer, which was kept locked, and in which some 

 ears of the common large soft corn, and some of 

 pop corn (the smallest and hardest, as well as the 

 earliest kind,) had been kept since March. The 

 pop corn already (June 24th,) had weevil maggots 

 visible — the large corn none. This drawer (by 

 possibility,) might have been entered by weevil, 

 as I found afterwards that some of those which 

 hatched got out through a very narrow crack : but 

 it is not likely that any from without entered either 

 the drawer or the house. 



This drawer was kept locked, and was seldom 

 opened. It contained loose papers, which furnished 

 shelter and hiding places to the weevil, so that 

 when the drawer was opened to examine the corn, 

 but few of them attempted to escape. Plenty of 

 air had admittance hi to this drawer, and some glim- 

 mering of light. 



On Sept. 2nd, this ear (A) appeared (but with- 

 out counting them) to have weevil holes visible on 

 from one-third to one-half of all of its grains — and 

 the large soft corn in the same drawer had suffered 

 no less. 



