6 
THE RURAL "NEW -YORKER 
January 2, 
ANGOUMOIS GRAIN MOTH. 
them to form a box without a bottom. 
II. T., Trevilians, Va. —Can you give me 
some information about the fly or weevil 
which appears in late Summer in corn, 
the habits of the insect and what if any 
preventive? 
Ans. —The “fly or weevil” infesting 
the corn is commonly known as the 
Angoumois grain moth. About 150 
years ago it was very destructive in the 
French Province of Angoumois and has 
since been known by this common name. 
The insect infests the kernels of wheat, 
rye, barley or corn. The adult is a 
tiny moth, resembling a clothes moth, 
and has a wing expanse of only about 
one-half inch. The moths appear in the 
field just about the time the kernels of 
grain are maturing, and lay their eggs 
on the sides of the kernels. From 
these eggs hatch tiny caterpillars which 
eat their way inside the kernel, where 
thev develop in three or four weeks 
into the moths again. This second brood 
of moths appear just about harvest 
time, and lay eggs for another brood. 
In warm latitudes there may be three 
or four broods, the last one always 
hibernating as caterpillars inside the 
kernels of grain. If the grain is stored 
in warm places the insect may continue 
to breed in it during the Winter. Corn 
is rarely attacked until it is ripe and 
husked. When husked late and stored 
at once outdoors in cribs it is rarely 
seriously injured, but if husked earlier 
and stored in open bins indoors it may 
become badly infested. The insect was 
noted as injurious in North Carolina 
nearly 180 years ago, and every few 
years it is more or less injurious in 
many localities, especially in the South. 
Much of the devastation wrought by 
this insect can be prevented by thrash¬ 
ing or husking the grain or corn as 
soon after harvesting as possible, and 
putting it at once in bulk in tiuht bins 
or in good sacks in a cool place. In¬ 
festation can often be determined by 
the heating of the stored grain or corn. 
When infestation is known to occur, 
grain or corn can be treated with car¬ 
bon bisulphide*, which will kill the 
insects and not injure the kernels. The 
grain must be in tight bins, and the 
liquid poured in shallow pans set on 
top of the grain. One should use 
about one pound of the liquid for each 
250 cubic feet of space. The fumes of 
this liquid are heavier than air, and 
sink down through the grain; they are 
also explosive and no lights should be 
brought near. After treating the grain 
the bin should be closed as tightly as 
possible and kept so for two or three 
days. If all the grain or corn could 
be treated in this way as soon as it is 
put in storage it would oftentimes pre¬ 
vent infestation by this pest. I think 
the correspondent encourages this pest 
by holding over some of his corn from 
one year to the next. This gives the 
insect a chance to breed continuously 
in the stored grain, and thus to furnish 
a crop of the moths to infest the new 
grain as soon as it is put in storage. 
M. V. SLINGERLAND. 
Making Stone Drains. 
F. K. M., West Peabody, Mass .—I wish to 
ask about draining a field of five acres of 
black soil with clay subsoil. The field slopes 
to a meadow. The stones I want to use 
vary in size from the size of a stove to 
two inches in diameter. I suppose the 
large ones should be placed in the bottom 
of the ditch and smaller ones on top. How 
wide and deep should the ditches he made? 
Ought the larger stones to he broken in 
pieces before filling the ditch? 
Ans. —The first principle in making 
a stone drain is to leave an open pas¬ 
sage or “throat” at the bottom. If 
the stones are thrown in without order 
the drain will run for awhile, but after 
awhile the sand will sift in and clog. 
The “throat” at the bottom acts much 
like the opening in tile. Our plan is 
to select the flattest stones and put 
them at each side of the bottom of the 
drain with flat stones across. This is 
on the principle of putting two boards 
up edgewise with another board across 
Of course the ditch must be dug be¬ 
low frost and have an even grade so 
water will run freely. We put the 
smaller stones right above this throat 
though no particular effort is made to 
separate them by sizes. We would put 
the big stones anywhere that gets them 
below the point of the plow. Do not 
try to break the big ones. It will be 
labor thrown away. Simply get them 
under ground where the plow will not 
strike them. 
Genuine 
Thomas Phosphate Powder 
(Basic Slag Phosphate) 
WAR N IN G 
Clover and Turnips in Com Again. 
8. G., Annapolis, Md. — I, like G. W. McC. 
(page 912), took your advice and sowed 
Crimson clover and Cow-horn turnips In 
my corn at the last cultivation, and the 
result was very different from his; in fact, 
there were no results at all as far as the 
lurnips were concerned. They and the 
clover came up all right. The clover was 
a success, but the turnips made no growth 
at all. They tarried a while, hut little by 
little died down, and at the present writ¬ 
ing none is to he seen except around the 
edges where they got the sun. This is not 
my first attempt at growing turnips in the 
cornfield. Some years ago 1 concluded to 
grow my turnips in this way for the family 
cow and chickens, instead of a specially 
prepared plot. The result was a complete 
failure. It was not the fault of the land, 
because there is no better land in the State. 
I am of opinion that the cause of the fail¬ 
ure was the dense shade of the corn. In 
this neighborhood, and, I believe, gener¬ 
ally in this State, corn is grown in checks 
four feet each way, and two stalks in a 
hill. Where the land is good the stalks 
will grow 10 or 12 feet high, and the land 
will be pretty generally shaded; and after 
my two experiments, I am convinced that 
turnips will not grow in the shade, at least 
not in this neighborhood. I would like to 
hear how the Hope Farm man and G. W. 
McC. do it. I should like also to advise the 
readers of The R. N.-Y. not to try Alfalfa 
in the cornfield, as I did last year, which 
year was an ideal one for legumes. The 
Alfalfa came up and started off well, but 
finally sickened and died out, because of 
the shade, I presume. 
Ans. —There has been quite a general 
failure of turnips this year. Our own 
crop was very poor as compared with 
last year. We concluded that dry 
weather was responsible for the trouble. 
The Crimson clover proved a better 
drought-resisting plant than the turnips. 
In former years, when there was more 
rain, the turnips did well in the shade 
of the corn. This season we used some 
Dwarf Essex rape seed mixed with the 
clover and turnips. This rape has made 
a better growth than the turnips, and 
we shall use more of it. We conclude 
that it was the dry weather in August 
and September which made the turnips 
“fade away.” It is evident that the 
clover will live in very dry soil, and 
begin rapid growth when late rains 
come. If the turnips failed several sea¬ 
sons in succession we should drop them 
and try rape. The turnips are very 
useful—not so much for the plant food 
they contain as for the way they dig 
into the soil. We have never advised 
sowing Alfalfa in the corn. 
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