806 
’Jht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Angoumois Grain Moth 
Last year 1 bought seed corn, both field 
and sweet, from New York State. I had 
considerable left over, and saved it for 
this year. On examining it I find that 
it is infested with a small worm that has 
eaten the germ out of nearly every grain. 
This worm is white with brown head, and 
is about a quarter of an inch long. Can 
you identifv this pest for me, and will 
you advise me as to whether it will he 
wise to obtain more seed from the same 
source? j. J. M. 
Springfield. Mass. 
Evidently the seed corn in question be¬ 
came infested some time during the year, 
while it was stored, with the notorious 
stored grain pest, the Angoumois grain 
moth. This is a tiny moth imported 
many years ago from France, where it 
had been especially destructive in the 
province of Angoumois. It is, generally 
speaking, an inhabitant of warm climates, 
and is especially injurious in our South¬ 
ern States, although it is common and 
very destructive as far north as Pennsyl¬ 
vania and New Jersey, and apparently oc¬ 
curs in Massachusetts. It is not gener¬ 
ally of much consequence in New York, 
and probably 'in this instance did not 
come with the corn from that State. 
The small moth, which is slightly 
larger than the common clothes moth, or 
“miller." lays its tiny white eggs in crev¬ 
ices of the grains on the ear, where they 
hatch in a few days, and the very small 
white caterpillars enter the kernels of 
corn through holes so small that one can 
scarcely ever find them. Once inside the 
grain, the caterpillar eats out the in¬ 
terior. grows rapidly, and in about three 
weeks becomes full grown, when it event¬ 
ually transforms to a moth that crawls 
out of the kerne] through a small, round 
hole cut in the outer coat of the grain. 
This moth is ready in a few days, if the 
weather is warm, to lay eggs for a new 
generation. In a warm room the insect 
with go on breeding all the year through. 
The best way to keep seed corn free 
from this pest is to put the grain in a 
tight box or barrel and fumigate it with 
carbon bisulphide. If the corn is stored 
in a barrel it may be fumigated by pour¬ 
ing a half teacupful of the carbon bi¬ 
sulphide in a tin basin placed on top of 
the grain. The barrel should then be 
covered with several old blankets to hold 
the fumes wholly within the receptacle. 
The liquid will soon evaporate and the 
gas will kill everything in the barrel, pro¬ 
vided the staves are tight and the gas is 
held within. 
It must be borne in mind, however, 
that carbon bisulphide is inflammable and 
explosive, and one must not go near the 
barrel with a lighted candle, lantern, 
match, pipe or any other form of fire. 
After the corn has stood covered up for 
three or four days, the blankets may be 
removed and in a short time the gas will 
disappear, and there will be no more dan¬ 
ger. GLENN W. HERRICK. 
Seeding Buckwheat, Rye and Alsike 
T ogether 
Tan I sow buckwheat, rye and Alsike 
clover together, cutting the buckwheat 
straw to use as a mulch for strawberries? 
What proportions should I use in sowing 
these three? G. G. II. 
East Haven, Conn. 
It will depend very much upon the sea¬ 
son. Should the weather during July and 
August be very dry. so that a drought pre¬ 
vails. the combination of rye, buckwheat 
and clover will not amount to much. The 
buckwheat will grow, but the rye and 
clover will fail. If, on the other hand, 
the season is reasonably moist, or with a 
fair amount of moisture, the plan will be 
a fair successs. That has been our ex¬ 
perience, and we have tried it a number 
of times. Our plan is to work up the 
land early in July and seed at the rate 
of about three pecks of rye and a bushel 
and a half of buckwheat and four or five 
pounds of Alsike clover seed to the acre. 
This is seeded and covered in the usual 
way. The buckwheat starts first, and 
makes a strong, heavy growth, completely 
hiding the rye or clover. Later the buck¬ 
wheat is either cut for fodder or straw, or 
else killed by the frost. In either event 
if there has been a fair supply of moisture 
the rye and clover will grow up through 
the buckwheat and make a fair develop¬ 
ment. The rye is not as thick as would 
be the case if it were seeded alone, but 
it grows well, and has given with us a 
reasonable success. We have had people, 
however, use this combination and find 
fault with the advice given them, but they 
took a chance in a very dry season, and 
that is w’hy we are careful to state that 
in a time of drought this plan will not 
succeed. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
1 1 .. === =!) 
D O M E S T I C.—Samuel Untermyer, 
chief counsel of the Lockwood committee, 
opened the financial phase of the commit¬ 
tee’s inquiry into the high cost of bousing 
construction May 26 with a general sur¬ 
vey of the insurance business of the na¬ 
tion and a specific attack against the 
New York Fire Insurance Exchange, 
which he characterized as “one of the 
most despotic monopolies in the country.” 
Mr. Untermyer was himself amazed to 
learn from the first witness called, Alfred 
M. Best, an insurance expert, that ap¬ 
proximately 45 per cent of all fire insur¬ 
ance premiums collected in the United 
States goes to foreign companies. This 
gives these foreign firms, mainly British, 
it was testified, something like $400,000,- 
000 a year of American, money. 
The Huber unemployment prevention 
bill, said to be the first proposal to insure 
workers against loss of positions offered in 
any State Legislature, was killed in the 
Wisconsin Senate May 26, after an 
amendment exempting seasonal employ¬ 
ment from provisions of the measure had 
been eliminated. 
May 28 a big Curtiss-Eagle ambulance 
airplane crashed to earth near Morgan¬ 
town, Md.. in a severe storm. Five army 
men and two civilians were killed. 
A 50-pound bomb filled with TNT fell 
from a big De Ilaviland airplane at the 
Government proving grounds at Aberdeen, 
Md.. as it was taking off for a test bomb¬ 
ing flight in rehearsal for the great army 
and navy maneuvers in Chesapeake Bay 
May 30. The bomb exploded with terrific 
force killing five men and injuring ten 
more. Of the wounded men two will die. 
while the recovery of four others is doubt¬ 
ful. 
An estimated $400,000,000 will be 
slashed from the nation’s railway wage 
bill when an order cutting wages an aver¬ 
age of 12 per cent, handed down June 1 
by the United States Railroad Labor 
Board, becomes effective July 1. The 
order affects members of 31 labor organi¬ 
zations, employed on 104 railroads. The 
decision grants reductions varying from 
five to 13 cents an hour, or from five to 
10 per cent, and in the case of section 
laborers completely wiping out the in¬ 
crease granted that class of employes by 
the $600,000,000 wage award of July 20, 
1920. For section men the reduction 
was approximately 18 per cent; switch¬ 
men and shop crafts received a nine per 
cent reduction, while the train service 
men were cut approximately seven per 
cent. Car repairers were cut about 10 
per cent. Common labor pay, over which 
the railroads made their hardest fight, is 
to be reduced 6 to 8'Vj cents an hour, 
cutting freight truckers’ average monthly 
wages to $97.10, and track laborers to 
$77.11. This new schedule gives section 
men an average daily wage of $3.02 for 
an eight-hour day. although considerable 
testimony offered by the roads, particu¬ 
larly in the South, showed common labor 
wages as low as 81.50 for a ten-hour dav. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The entire 
town, courthouse, postoflioe, stores and 
residences of Nicola, British Columbia, 
has been purchased by Major Charles 
Sydney Goldham, South African capital¬ 
ist and former member of the British 
House of Parliament, and is to be con¬ 
verted into a model English village. The 
business section is to be replaced with a 
village green, and on the 20,000 acres sur¬ 
rounding the town, which are included 
in the purchase, will be laid out in model 
farms. A Summer resort to be built on 
Nicola Lake is included in the plans. 
Financial aid must be rendered to the 
great American cotton-raising industry 
if it is to weather the storm of depression 
in which it is now engulfed. This was 
the theme of most of the speakers May 30 
at the opening of the two-day National 
Cotton Consultation Conference, under 
the auspices of the American Cotton Asso¬ 
ciation. at the Hotel Pennsylvania, New 
York < ’ity. From statistics presented it 
is indicated that the smallest cotton crop 
in 25 years or more will come out of the 
South this year, as a result of the finan¬ 
cial distress of growers and their inability 
to market the 1920 crop. The campaign 
June 11, 1921 
of the association to reduce acreage 
among the cotton growers has been a suc¬ 
cess, it is said. Final reports made at 
the conference indicate a reduction in 
acreage planted this year of 30.73 per 
cent, to which is added a crop abandon¬ 
ment because of financial difficulties of 
4.95 per cent, and a reduction in the use 
of fertilizer necessary to the growing of 
cotton in the Uarolinas, Georgia and por¬ 
tions of other .States of 51.17 per cent. 
Senator Itansdall of Louisiana, who is 
also a cotton planter, said that the loss 
occasioned by the deflation in cotton had 
amounted to $2,000,000,000. The North 
felt the reaction through its inability to 
sell goods to the South, he said, because 
of the lack of money among Southerners 
to purchase merchandise. 
Creation of a $100,000,000 Federal 
Farmers’ Export Financing Corporation 
to buy farm products in the United States 
and sell them abroad is proposed in a bill 
introduced May 31 by Senator Norris of 
Nebraska, chairman of the Agriculture 
Committee. The corporation would be 
composed of the Secretary of Agriculture 
and four other directors to be appointed 
by the President, with the consent of the 
Senate, at annual salaries of $7,500. and 
be authorized to issue bonds up to 10 
times its paid-in capital. The proposed 
new Government agency would sell Amer¬ 
ican farm products abroad to nations or 
individuals, act as the agent for any 
producer or dealer in farm products, and 
also make advances to assist agriC”ltural 
exports. 
Poultrymen from everywhere will flock 
to New Brunswick, Poultry Day of Farm¬ 
ers’ Week, which is held every year at 
the College Farm. This year this will 
fall on Saturday. June 18. The New 
Jersey State Poultry Association has de¬ 
clared this day their Annual Field Day. 
The majority of local poultry associations 
have done likewise. The New Jersey As¬ 
sociation of Poultry, Pigeon and Pet 
Stock Fanciers are going to be present 
throughout the dav and evening to lend 
interest and enjoyment to the meeting. 
The daily program will be run according 
to Eastern standard time, to accommodate 
the poultrymen who come from agricul¬ 
tural districts. The evening program will 
consist of a dinner, which will be tend<><l 
in honor of Prof. Harry R. Lewis. 
Now $695 
T HE price radically reduced is $150 less 
than this car ever sold for before; Quality 
is higher than ever! T^ugged as ever! Econom¬ 
ical as ever! Qomfortable as ever! Its gasoline 
averages 25 miles per gallon. The unques¬ 
tioned leader among Low Lriced cars to own 
and use! 
Lrices f. 0 . b. Loltdo , Ohio 
Touring, $695; was $895 Coupe, $1000; was $1425 
Roadster, $695;was $895 Sedan, $1275; was $1475 
Long, Liberal Easy Payments e ,Available 
WILLYS-OVERLAND Inc. 
TOLEDO, OHIO 
