Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1825-10-22
From the Maysville Eagle.
THE WEEVIL.


The inquiry of almost every farmer is,
6 How shall we preserve our wheat from
the weevIi Z"
We answer-thresh it Immediately,
clean il from the chat; spread II IN barn
or open room, and II 1t acquires the least
warmth stir it daily.
The wheat which we received about
lhe first of this month, which then had
some weevil in the grain, we found heat
ed in few days. We spread and con-
slantly stirred it for about two weeks ;
those then in it ate their way ou,-none
have since bred in tit now lies in bulk
without heating, and we consider it pre-
ferable to that which VIC are daily re-
ceiving from the threshing floor.
We have now several Thousand bush
els of wheat on hand, which was thresh
ed from the shock and from the stack
before the weevll commenced their ra-
wages. 1t has been lying in garners
near sixty days, and has been kept cool
by frequent stirring; the weevil has not
touched it--and we have no hesitation 10
saying, let their rayages be what they
may in the stack, wheat thus clean and
kept cool, will in all cases be Tree from
the flying weevil.
We are now receiving a lot OF thou
sand bushels, which was lhreshed in Ju-
ly and early in August, ran through The
fan and spread in large barn. II is per-
fec,ly cool, and has not received the
least damage. All small lots, threshed
and cleaned about that time, and kept
cool, we find IN the same good order. /,
is absolutely said that some who threshed
and penned their wheat in the chat be-
fore the weevil were visible, have pre-
served II; but OF this we speak with some
doubt.
We now hear many speak of thresh
ing and slowing away in the chaH. Blu,
those we would advise to be cautious
there is scarcely stack Of wheat in the
country entirely free from weevil, and
that which contains but small portion,
will heat if packed away in the chaH.
We have heard some wild theorists re
commend this mode TO heat the wheat,
which they say, will kill the weevil
and destroy the egg from which they
hatch"
This reminds US of the old story of the
Dutchman who set fire to his barn TO d.
vest it OF .,a,s; for we know that whea,
thus heated will never afterwards grow,
nor will the -four made from it reward
the miller for his labor of grinding.
|, is not our design to enter into the
natural history Of this insect. We are
DESTROYS that the farmers should preserve
their present and future crops OF wheat
from destruction; and being willing
that they should profit by our short ex-
perence We freely tell them " that which
we knows" This much, however, we
will add as mere opinion. We believe
they are produced from an egg, which,
after being laid in the grain, requires
certain degree Of heat to produce ANNA
ton. That portion which is produced
by the straw in the stack, during the sum-
mer and fall, appears to be natures
choice. 1t is against that portion OF
heat we would have The farmers TO guard,
when we advise them to ,hresh and keep
their wheat cool. Whether the egg is
deposited in the field or in the stack, we
pretend not TO say, but we have rather
concluded, in the latter: but we can with
safety say, that the wheat now on hand,
which never went through the sweat or
which has never attained that heat to
which nearly all wheat in the stack is
subject, whether it contains the egg or
not, has produced no weevil; and that
which we have recently received from
the stack, ceases to hatch or in any wise
produce them, so soon as we can get it
perfectly cool.
On these and other observations, too
numerous for insertion. we advise those
who would preserve their present crops,
to thresh and clean them Immediately
and those who would hereafter effectual-
ly guard against the flying weevil. advise
to thresh from the shock, or before the
wheat takes The sweat.
H. & H. HTXSON.
Ohio Steam Mil, Mavsvilte,
Sept. 30, 1925. )