6 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



March and such wheat as is not sold, or at any rate bagged, 

 by the time the monsoon bursts, is " pitted " to protect it 

 from the heavy rains. Big holes are dug in the ground and 

 the wheat is buried till the rains are over. Not infrequently 

 the farmer elects to hoard his wheat which is pitted just as 

 the native hoards silver, and it may remain in the pit for 

 many months or even several years. 



But even with these untoward conditions the amount of 

 Indian wheat that is lost by the weevil ravage is negligible, 

 and I suppose I am probably overstating the loss of wheat 

 all over the world consumed by weevil if I put it at 0.001 per 

 cent, per annum. The only trouble the weevil has given us 

 is the same as in the case of the mite ; if he turns up in rather 

 large numbers and temperature is such that he ceases to be 

 comatose, and becomes active, he generates heat, and thus 

 brings up the temperature of the wheat and causes the trouble, 

 and the wheat has to be blown and screened. 



The wheat crop of Australia gathered in 1915 was an 

 abnormally big one, more than twice as big as any previous 

 crop ; this was partly due to the guarantee given the farmer 

 as to price and the consequent large acreage and partly to 

 very favourable growing and harvesting weather. 



Owing to shortness of shipping no serious attempt was 

 made to deal with this < wheat until October, 1916, nearly 

 twelve months after the crop had been harvested, when the 

 British Government made a contract with the Australian 

 Government for 500,000 tons, subsequently increased, after 

 the Wheat Commission was set up, to 3,500,000 tons. A very 

 considerable amount of this was shipped in the first months of 

 1917, after shipping had been commandeered. But after 

 March of that year it was only possible to ship small monthly 

 parcels owing to the great shortness of shipping due to sub- 

 marine action and the very long voyage to Australia compared 

 with that to North America. The last portion of this purchase 

 is only now being got away from Australia. 



