FARMERS' REGISTER— MOTH-WEEVIL. 



331 



Postscript.-Afier the foregoing piece had been fin- 

 ished, except inserting the close of the fourth expe- 

 riment, some additional facts were observed, which 

 may be worth notice, or serve to call the attention of 

 more competent observers, to the habits of weevil. 

 The weather became again remarkably warm 

 by the 18th September, on which day and the next, 

 my thermometer, in the shade, and open air, rose 

 to 90° and 90^°. This brought out a new supply 

 of winged weevil, and they have continued active 

 to this time, the 7th of October. There has been 

 no cold weatlier within this time, and the general 

 temperature has been warm for the season. The 

 crops of corn have matured uncommonly early this 

 autumn, the greater part, on good land, being hard 

 (though not dry) by the middle of September. — 

 Of course, these circumstances have allowed wee- 

 vil an unusual length of time to deposit eggs on the 

 ears in the field, and sufficient time and warmth 

 for many of the insects to complete their growth, 

 and come out to lay a second brood. Tiie focts 

 agree with this anticipation, which was founded 

 on the views which have been presented. Since 

 October 3d, I have examined several fields of corn, 

 and find in plenty (what is generally of such rare 

 occurrence,) ears showing weevil-eaten grains. — 

 It is only where the ear has outgrown the shuck, 

 or otherwise was not covered by it, that the weevil 

 holes are found — but of all such, very few are 

 without one or more of these marks. But on new 

 corn, standing near to houses containing old corn, 

 or wheat, the weevil are far more numerous. I 

 gathered a large ear, which had grown within 60 

 yards of a crib containing corn well stocked with 

 weevil, and on it counted 89 grains, in which the 

 insects were visible externally, or tlie holes through 

 which they had already escaped. Some of these 

 grains were so low on the ear, that they must have 

 been securely covered until after the fodder was 

 stripped, which, by killing the plant, caused the 

 shuck to open, and gave admittance to the insects. 

 Of course they had similar means of access to ma- 

 ny ears, which did not protrude beyond their co- 

 vering. A friend and neighbor, whom I had re- 

 quested to examine his corn,, informed me, that his 

 new crop in the field is much more full of weevil, 

 than the last year's crop, of which he has a large 

 quantity (in ears) in his barn, and which we had 

 lately examined, and found to be but little injured. 

 He sent me the points of two ears, as specimens 

 from his field: one had 20 and the other 18 visible 

 weevil cells. The last was of rare-ripe, (or flint) 

 corn, and the other of the common large kind. I 

 suppose he meant that these were specimens of the 

 ears extending beyond the shuck, and near his corn 

 house, as he stated the injury to be much greater 

 there than at more distant parts of his field. 



Before being directed, accidentally, to observe 

 these unexpected facts, (and unprecedented, as it 

 respects the great number of weevil in new corn,) 

 I had noticed the old corn, and wheat retained for 

 seed, on several different farms. In my own corn 

 (September 19th,) very few weevil-eaten grains 

 were found, and but for the presence of some of the 

 insects, it would have been supposed that no such 

 damage had been sustained. But though none 

 could he found within the bulk of ears, some few 

 ears, (especially rare-ripe,) were found a little 

 v/eevil-eaten on the highest part of the heap. My 

 seed wheat, which was in a barn about 60 yards 

 distant, had been f hrashed late in July, fanned clean, 



and spread upon a floor 10 inches thick. A few 

 winged weevil were seen crawling over the heap. 

 No damaged grains were found within, or on the 

 bulk, though doubtless there were some on the sur- 

 face : the eye does not easily discover the eaten 

 grains in wheat, even when they are so completely 

 hollowed out, as to be easily crushed between the 

 fingers. My barn and cribs had been erected so 

 lately, that these were the first crops they had held 

 — and no grain had ever been kept before within 

 three-quarters of a mile of that location. To this 

 circumstance, together with the scarcity of weevil 

 last year, and to my uniform practice of thrashing 

 and sending my wheat to market early, I attribute 

 my singular exemption from weevil this year. 



"In other cribs, examined in the same neighbor- 

 hood, there were found remarkable differences in 

 the numbers of weevil, and without reasons for the 

 difference being always apparent. They are ge- 

 nerally more scarce than is usual, but some parcels 

 of corn are very full. In some of the latter cases 

 the wheat has not generally been thrashed early : 

 and if all the facts could be ascertained, I have no 

 doubt it would be seen, that by some neglect in 

 previous management, at all such places, a suffici- 

 ent breeding stock of weevil had been suffered to 

 remain, to produce the present abundant supply. — 

 Such a stock of breeders, it seems, is now in every 

 crop of new corn, and I will venture to foretell 

 that great and iinusual injury will lake place from 

 this cause next summer, unless the winter should 

 be very severe, or some artificial means of preven- 

 tion should be resorted to. It will be especially 

 requisite to thrash and clean the next crop of wheat 

 as early as possible, and to keep in the shuck, all 

 corn intended for late consumption. 



On the 9th of October, I again examined the 

 corn in my crib, where so few weevil had been 

 found 17 days before. They had increased greatly 

 though still few in number, compared to other 

 places. The ears in the field, (about 400 yards 

 distant from the grain houses,) which protruded 

 from the shuck, generally showed some weevil 

 holes — and on one, 16 such marks of well grown 

 maggots were counted. But though the corn in 

 the fields is most affected where nearest to old and 

 weevil eaten grain, the protruding ears in the most 

 remote and sheltered situations also show more or 

 less of the operations and presence of weevil. It 

 seems evident, that these insects prefer the soft 

 new corn, to the old, as a receptacle for their 

 eggs — or otherwise, that the hatching and life of 

 tlie maggots are more certain in the former. 



Perhaps I have presumed too much on the pa- 

 tience of the readers of the Farmers' Register 

 in treating this subject at such length— and I may 

 be held as the more inexcusable, because unac- 

 quainted with that branch of natural history, to 

 which the subject belongs. In this, as in many 

 other respects, the c»<omo/og-is/ might render most 

 essential service to agriculture; and, if any one 

 will deign to use, for this purpose, such rough ma- 

 terials as I may have furnished, I shall be content 

 to liave the worthless portion condemned and thrown 

 aside. E. R. 



ON THE WEEVIL IN WHEAT. 



From the American Farmer. 



Nelson County,' Ky. j^pril28, 1831. 

 Mr. SaiiTH : — Wheat being one of our most 

 valuable crops, and the weevil its great enemy. 



