88 
Observations on the various Insects 
M. Terrasse Dubillon, is also a kind of roaster, but with many 
spiral concentrics into which the grains successively pass.* 
" The grain being put into the roaster the instrument is turned 
over the fire like the coffee-roaster for 5 minutes; the grain is 
then withdrawn, the temperature being 57° Reaumur, and that 
must be calculated at about 60°, through the loss of heat which 
it experiences from opening the door and introducing the thermo- 
meter. The experiments made by the commission named by the 
Agricultural Society of Cher (in France) with this machine, 
proved that all the larvae contained in the grains were dead and 
dried in the prescribed time (50 minutes) ; that these grains, 
afterwards placed by the side of those infested, have undergone 
no more fermentation, and have been no more devoured by in- 
sects ; that they have suffered no more waste than the others con- 
tinued to suffer ; finally, that the entire grains which had been 
put into the roaster, have germinated as well as the other grains 
which had not been placed there. 
" The commission of Cher has verified that the machine of 
M. Marcellin was thus able to prepare, in one day, 120 common 
bushels (boisseaux f) ; that a man and woman, or two women 
only, were sufficient to work it; and that with the fuel employed 
the expense in the country amounted to 3 francs per diem, or to 
a demi-sou (less than a farthing) per bushel. 
" The machine of M. Dubillon has produced the same results 
as M. Marcellm's, with a little more saving in labour. From the 
entry of the grain to its exit from the mill it passes over 300 feet, 
and the first grain introduced has taken 4^ minutes to traverse 
this space : 14 boisseaux have passed through in 1 hour, which 
gives 140 boisseaux in 10 hours of work, or '20 boisseaux more 
than M. Marcellin's roaster. The consumption of fuel was not 
greater, and two persons equally sufficed to serve the machine, it 
consequently shows that the expense is a little less ; but it must 
be observed that M. Marcellin's roaster is much more simple and 
cheaper than the complicated one of M. Dubillon, and is better 
suited to the pocket of the small cultivator than this last." 
Simple friction promises to answer every purpose, as will 
appear from the following remarks made by Dr. Herpin :| — " I 
think I have made a discovery of a very easy and very economical 
process for destroying the Alucita (I3utalis cerealella) in its dif- 
ferent states. It is by means of an Agitator or Shaking-machine, 
similar to the vertical Tarares, furnished with little wooden or 
* The foregoing and following facts have been copied from Duponchel's 
Supplement to the Lupidoptcres de France, vol. iv. p. 444. 
•|' A boisseau is rather more than an English peck ; thus, 3 boisseaux 
are equal to 1 English bushel, and 107 parts of a thousand over. 
X" llecherches sur la Destruction de l Alucite, ouTeigne des Graines. 
