70 
CORN. 
any rate, they are nothing like so numerous and troublesome. Acting 
on your suggestion, I stopped the mills for a week, and had all the 
machines cleaned through, and then went over them and the walls 
with steam; and now we are whitewashing the walls and underneath 
all floors with fresh-slaked lime and paraffin.”. 
On Nov. 20th my correspondent further reported that he had not 
written sooner, wishing to record a positive clearance of the pest:— 
“ Unfortunately I cannot say that, just yet, though I have reason to 
hope that our continual exertions will prove successful; there are 
comparatively but few moths about, and I rather think the paraffin 
and soft soap is not very agreeable to them.The way I applied 
the steam was by carrying about forty yards of half-inch piping into 
the mill from the boilers, and attaching an india-rubber bore to it for 
the men to work about on the walls, floors, spouts, and machines, 
blowing the steam into all the crevices and holes. 
“ I think I told you I stopped the mill for a week whilst this was 
being done; it has rusted all the shafting, &c., but this is quite a 
secondary matter: it can soon be cleaned again. After blowing the 
steam, which took two or three days, I set the men to work to wash 
the walls (and everywhere that they could without fear of affecting the 
flour) with paraffin; inside the machines I had washed with a strong 
solution of boiling water and soda. I find that strong soda and water 
is effectual in destroying the maggots when it can be got on them. I 
still continue washing and syringing all likely places for them to settle 
with paraffin, and keep a lad or two going about brushing up and 
killing all the moths they can see.” 
The preceding observations given verbatim point out, I think, more 
strongly than any description the serious nature of this attack, which, 
even by such stringent, well-conducted measures, cannot be entirely 
got under. 
The great point in the habits of this pest which we need to 
meet is its custom of infesting every nook that it can reach, and also 
its power of forcing itself into or out of the most apparently secure 
spots. This is noted by various observers. 
In Mr. Klein’s observations (previously quoted) he mentions that 
his specimens, which had been placed “under a large glass shade on a 
polished wooden surface, with no perceptible outlet,” conveyed them¬ 
selves out in some way so that the corners and ceiling of his room were 
within a week studded with their cocoons,” and specimens were every 
day discovered about the house from top to bottom. 
In my own observation I placed one caterpillar about a third grown 
under a small cardboard case on a woollen tablecloth, so that there were 
no spaces for exit, and on the top I placed a 1 lb. weight, but before 
long the creature was on the outside. 
