GRAIN CONSERVATION 109 



thing of the work done by the Royal Society during 

 the war in relation to food. He left it to me to speak 

 to you of their Grain Pests (War) Committee, which, 

 to quote from the Introductory Note to their first 

 Report, " was appointed by the Council of the Royal 

 Society in June 1916, as the result of a correspond- 

 ence with the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 

 in which the Board requested the Royal Society to 

 appoint a Committee 'in relation to the damage 

 done to grain by insects.' ' It was as a member of 

 this Committee that I first became interested in the 

 grain problem. Much work has already been done 

 by members of the Committee and by assistants 

 paid by the Royal Society. I would call attention 

 especially to the valuable Report by my colleagues, 

 Professor R. Newstead and Miss Duvall, on the mites 

 which attack grain and flour. My own attention 

 was at first directed to the habits and life-histories 

 of the various small beetles which occur in stored 

 wheat and the damage which is due to their activi- 

 ties, but I was gradually led on to take a wider view 

 of the subject and to make a number of experiments 

 with regard to methods of preventing their ravages. 

 These led me to consider the problem of the storage 

 of cereals as a whole. 



It soon became evident that I had undertaken 

 more than I could carry out single-handed, especially 

 as the work had to be done in the intervals of my 

 ordinary professorial duties. Some of the problems 



