45 
in such places. This liability 
may be removed by the sub¬ 
stitution of metal for wooden 
spouts. The metal spout 
was first used for this pur¬ 
pose by the inventor, Mr. L. 
G. Schroeder, of Olean, New 
York, and is protected by a 
patent. These spouts are 
perfectly smooth and there 
is no chance for an insect to 
find lodgement within them. 
The inventor claims that they 
can be made for less money 
than the lumber costs for 
wooden ones and that a mill¬ 
wright is not needed to put 
them in position. (See Fig. 6.) 
I might say in this connec¬ 
tion that Mr. Schrceder has 
also applied for a patent for 
a metai elevator leg, which, 
when on the market, will 
afford another useful piece of 
fig. 6—Adjustable metal spout. apparatus for preventing the 
establishment of injurious insects in these parts of a mill. 
Where metal spouts have been resorted to in mills overrun with 
this scourge, the results have been very satisfactory. In March, 1895, 
a New York miller wrote me the following letter on this subject: 
“I have discontinued the use of wooden spouts and have substi¬ 
tuted metal ones. Since I adopted this spout I have had no 
trouble with the moth in the plant, but it has drifted from 
here to the flour department, and seems to be most abundant in 
the purifiers and rollers. I am now removing all the wooden 
spouts as fast as I can in the flour deprrtment, and I hope to be 
able to get rid of the pest before warm weather comes on.” 
This letter was followed by another communication from the same 
miller, dated August 14, which I quote in full, and which needs no 
comment: “The Mediterranean flour moth is a thing of the past, 
or nearly so, in our mill. When I wrote you last [March 17] 
this mill was alive with them; but I have rooted them out by 
degrees. I was confident I could do it. As I said before, they 
shifted about from the meal department to ihe buckwheat depart¬ 
ment and then to the flour department, all three plants being 
located under one and the same roof. The latter part of May I 
shut down four days for the sole purpose of cleaning out this 
pest. I ran down the stock as close as possible and then had the 
mill swept from top to bottom. I then took down all wooden 
spouts and replaced them with metal spouts. I have metal spouts 
here which were put in nearly twelve months ago in our meal 
department, and during that time not a moth has been seen in 
