The morning call., 1892-12-08

aud crawling until he gets ready to spin
about him the drapery of his silken cocoon.
The caterpillar which precedes the -four
moth, however, begins trailing little silken
threads behind him almost as soon as he be-
gins to eat and crawl.
He keeps ii up until be begins his cocoon
and every one of these caterpilars thus
produces about him bunch of loose tangled
fiIaments.
This bunch is always mixed up with -four
and looks and feels about like handful Of
cobweos gathered here and there and rolled
loosely together in a f1ourbin.
OF what earthly use in the life economy
OF the insect this waste silk is nobody has
yet learned, but it is assumed that il was in
tended for purpose and it may be Of use
when the insect lives elsewhere than In
fourmills which nature did not take into
account in making arrangements for the
ephestia kubnielia.
1t is this waste silk that bothers the mill
er most. When hundreds and thousands of
eggs hatch in one of those elevators or in
other hidden portions of the machinery this
waste silk accumulates rapidly and so do
the cocoOns which remain when the moth
comes forth.
1t piles up into tangled masses of silk,
flour and gummy coeoons.
The machinery clogs. works with diff
Guilty and soon stops altogether. Then the
whole works have to be taken apart and
cleaned out. The mill has to stop and
sometimes almost every piece of machinery
in it has to be taken apart. and the mill
cleaned from attic to cellar.
When the eggs are laid on the outside of
flour sack and the Larvae burrow ia they
just carelessly distribute their large extra
supply OF silk all through it. The -four may
be made from new clean wheat and sent
out few days or a day or two after
it is sacked, and then when the cook
or housewife opens 1t a month later she
may find it full of those punches of cob
webs.
She may also find white grubs through
it. but she will have TO look sharp and sift
ii well or she may overlook them. She may
also find cocoons in the flour and little cater
pillars. that died just before they made CO.
cOons. and other things that don't look nice.
Isn't that enough TO make any woman
turn up her nose and say. We'll. that's the
last -four I'll buy there. 1t must nave been
made before the war;"
1t would be nice. wouldn't 1t, when en-
joying dish OF oatmeal at breakfast, to
but let that pass.
Is the ephestia kuhniella friend to man?
Is it welcome guest?
Think that this little pest has gained
foothold in every milling center in the
State, that it will steadily spread and
multiply, and that it simply cannot be
eradicated for the present. and then wonder
/ what is to be done.
Well. the millers will have to fight our
battles, and we may only pray that there
VIII be as few strings as possible to our pies
| and that each loaf Of bread will not become
veritabe grub stake.
The millers have not put advertisements
10 the papers saying that the fiour-moth
had cursed their mills. The first public
announcement of the pest was made the
| other day in bulletin issued by Professor
| w. G. johnson, the entomoIogist of Stan
| ford University. If any one wants to know
all about four-moths let them call on Pre-
lessor johnson, but it will take him all day
| to tell all he knows about II.
That was the Impression CALL reporter
| got when he called on that gentleman
yesterday with inquiries about the threaten
ing 1our-eating insect.
Mr.. johnson Is no gray-haired savant.
BE was found to be red-cheeked, hand
some and intellectual looking young man
OF rs years that any one might mistake for
bright student OF the university.
The chair OF entomology is occupied by
Professor StiIlman of Cornell, but he comes
here only in January each year and lectures
for three months. The rest of the In
struction and all the practical work OF the
institution is done Big Professor johnson.
He is an enthusiastic young Cornell man
and he knows a whole lot about bugs.
"Why, yes; come in 10 my desk" he said
to the reporter in one of the corridors of
the quad" as they call the quadrangle
| down there.
| The door eighty-one opened into the big
| laboratory OF the department of zoology
and at many tables fifty boys and girls were
peering into microscopes, digging into Jars
| OF dead fish, dissecting CHASTITY picked re-
mains of recently departed animals and
| otherwise exploring the ways OF nature
with living things.
My desk" was at one end OF the room
| loaded with beetles and books, and there
| Mr.. johnson seated himself and began TO
| give forth information about the -four
moth
One Of the first things learned was that
the ephestia kuhniella, now SO distinguished
bug, was never heard of by entOmo logists
until about 1877. when 1t was observed in
| fourmills in Europe.
1t had never been named, described or
even observed before.
1t may have existed for thousands of
| years, but IL had never bothered fl ,urmills
before, as FAR as is known, and remained
| entirely undiscovered.