48 
As a guide to millers who may use this method for exterminat¬ 
ing insect pests in mills, I will quote several letters £r>m practi¬ 
cal millers who have used bisulphide of carbon successfully. The 
superintendent of a large Pennsylvania milling company, whose 
name is withheld by request, under date of July 12, 1895, wrote 
me the following letter, which is a valuable contribution to this 
subject, and should be read by every wide-awake miller and grain 
dealer: 
“We have delayed answering your valued favor of May 
last until we were able to report the result of our efforts to de¬ 
stroy the weevils in our mill. Following in the line of your ad¬ 
vice, we ran our stock down and thoroughly renova!ed our mill 
from top to bottom, cleaning all reels and purifiers. We then 
fumigated the whole mill with bisulphide of carbon. We distrib¬ 
uted oOO soup plates about half filled with bisulphide through 
the mill, and saturated balls of cotton with the same material 
and placed them in all the reels and purifiers. This we did on 
Saturday night and closed the mill tight and left the weevils to 
their destruction. 
“We opened the mill Monday morning and thoroughly venti¬ 
lated it before starting. We found that we had destroyed thou¬ 
sands, and in the reels and purifiers we had killed them ad. In 
the course of x few days, however, they began to show up in the 
cracks in the floors all over the mill, and in dark corners. Two 
weeks later we repeated the dose of bisulphide in the same man¬ 
ner and obtained about the same results. In the meantime, how¬ 
ever, we whitewashed the mill from top to bottom, that is, every 
place that could be covered, putting on a good heavy coat. We 
have not destroyed them all by any means; but we have reduced 
their forces to a very small number. Eternal vigilance is the 
order (£ the day. 
“We are still fighting them. Oar plan is to keep a stock of 
bisulphide on hand outside of the mill building, as we do not 
think it advisable to store it in the mill on account of its in¬ 
flammable nature. Wherever we find a place infested by the wee¬ 
vil we use it freely, taking care to do it when the mill is shut 
down and closed up tight. We find the best results from the use 
of bisulphide of carbon can be obtained by spraying it on the floors 
and infested places. We think when placed in plates it does not 
evaporate quick enough to produce the death atmosphere required. 
Before closing let us return our sincere thanks to you for the 
interest you have taken in the matter, and assure you that we 
appreciate your valuable advice.” 
The “American Miller” for July, 1895, contains another inter¬ 
esting and valuable communication on this subject, from Mr. H. 
J. Laurie, of Norwalk, Ohio, and I quote it here in full: 
“As the season is now upon us w hen a large majority of the flouring- 
mills of the country are being troubled with insects of various 
kinds, such as weevils, worms, moths, etc., I thought it might not 
be out of place to give our experience here with bisulphide of 
carbon, which we have been using for several seasons with very 
satisfactory results. 
