ae 
WHEAT, WEEVILS AND BULK-HANDLING. 
Even, however, if protection from rain—and from ground damp— 
were thoroughly insured, it would not necessarily follow that inroads 
of weevils would not take place. There is evidence to show—though 
the subject has not yet been satisfactorily worked out—that at, least 
during certain stages in the maturing‘ of the wheat grain, or during 
the dormant‘) condition which follows when the grain becomes ready 
for the first phase of active growth known as germination, it becomes 
hygroscopic, and in a moist climate will absorb from the atmosphere 
water enough to render it fit for the needs of the multiplying weevil. 
All of the preceding relating to storage and transport is now, it is 
to be hoped, a matter of past history. Until the construction of silos, 
erain-elevators, and bulk railway waggons have reached a more advanced 
stage, the present system of handling the wheat must be continued. 
But, following the advice given by Professor Maxwell Lefroy, the 
Wheat Board of New South Wales now constructs its stacks on an 
improved plan. ‘The roof is independently supported, and does not 
rest on the bags of wheat. There is a free space between the 
héssian walls and the sides of the stack; the floor is laid on ground 
specially prepared with a view to its being weevil-proof, and is finished 
with boards covered with hessian to prevent grain spilt from torn sacks 
or from holes made by “ triers” from trickling down into the spaces 
below and affording facilities for the development of weevil colonies. 
In addition, the policy of storing the wheat in the warm moist coastal 
zone is now abandoned. 
Soon, howeyer, bulk-handling will come into operation in this State, 
and probably before long in the two other States—Victoria and South Aus- 
tralia—which produce an exportable surplus sufficiently large to justify 
the heavy initial expenditure. With this change the problem of weevil 
prevention and weevil extermination may be very greatly simplified. The 
risk of widespread invasion by weevils ought certainly to be lessened, 
since in the silos and the special trucks the wheat will presumably be 
completely protected from rain. There remains, however, always the 
danger of its being wetted before it reaches the collecting silos, and 
there is the possibly greater danger of the absorption of moisture from 
the humid atmosphere of the port of shipment, since it may remain 
there awaiting despatch for a number of months. Once moist enough 
and with a few weevils introduced, as must happen often even when 
every precaution is taken in the cleaning processes that precede storage, 
the mass of grain would offer during the greater part of the year ideal 
conditions for the development of a plentiful crop of the destructive 
insects. 
But, fortunately, the system of bulk-handling affords special facili- 
ties for dealing with such an invasion if it should take place. | And by 
the periodical inspections which would have to be instituted of the 
condition of the wheat in the silos, such an invasion would readily be* 
() The terms ‘maturation ” and ‘*dormancy” are here used in a very restricted sense. In 
general biology by maturation is meant the series of changes in the egg-cell (ovum or oosphere) which 
are preparatory to fertilization. By plant-physiologists the same term is used for the changes which 
take place in the ovule after fertilization, changes leading to the ripening of the seed. By millers and 
maltsters the term maturation, or maturing, is applied to changes which take place in the grain after 
it has been harvested. The term ‘‘dormancy”’ is of wide application in biology, indicating any pro- 
longed period of rest or suspension of activity on the part of an organism. Here it applies to grain 
after it has become ‘ mature” and is completely prepared for germination. 
0.12439,—5 305 
