Waterbury Democrat., 1900-12-17

~ HESTNUTS this season are very wormy, and many people are
 asking how does the worm get into the chestnut?
 The entomologist of the depart ment of agriculture, who knows all about all sorts of bugs, says: 1.-The worm is put into the chestnut by Q long-snouted beetle. This insect has proboscis of most extraordinary pro- portions, as much as twice the length of it's body. In the business it con. ducts such an exceptional nose is ab' solutely necessary, inasmuch as when the female desires to lay her eggs she crawls over the chestnut burr as it hangs on the tree not yet ripe and seeks the little opening at the top. through which she inserts the snout. The snout thus introduced is projected down through the thick pricilIy husll to the chestnut inside It may De that the beetle thrusts he1 proboscis actually through the shel of the nuts themselves, but my i'm. pression is that she simply lays he1 eggs and pushes them with her snout in among the nuts. leaving them there to be matched. after which the little WOFHlS pore lHGlf way III SSdIcH oi food into the kernels through holes so small. as to be imperceptible. At all events they are quickly closed IF with the growth of the nuts.
 You never find worms in chest nuts you obtain by smashing the green burrs open. It is only the nut $ that are found upon the ground loose or taken from ripened burrs that have fallen, which appear to contain these unpleasant intruders. Presumably the reason for this is that the worm eptibly small in the freshly de veloped nut. begins to feed and tc grow very rapidly as soon as the fruit has become ripe. At all events you never find a worm in q chestnut that has a hole in it, but only the destroyed meat that it has eaten and discarded. When the creature has fin ished devQuring the kernel it bore, its way out through the shell anC leaves the hole behind it.
 By the time the worm has con. sumed it's chestnut and crawled out to look upon the world the weather has begun to be, pretty cold, and ii seeks shelter by lurrowing into the ground, where it lies in torpid con dition for many months. Eventually from the earth it emerges, though not in the shape of a worm, but as s beetle with a long snout. When au tumn comes, it waits upon the chest. nut tree or in it's neighborhood, if if is a female, and chooses the proper time for showing ifs eggs into ths burrs wheIt they are ripening. These worms are the new crop, ready to be. gin anew their destroying work, and so the thing goes on from year tc year. In some seasons the beetles are comparatively scarce, and chestnut worms approximately Shippers ot chestnuts avoid sending their product long distances, so far as is possib ble because the contents of the barrels become 'heated,' as. they call it, anG the. worms are rapidly developed, SC that consignment may reach the market altogether unfit for use. The best way to prepare chestnuts is tc immerse them in boiling water fol about ten minutes as soon as gath cred. Wormy nuts will float on the surface and may be removed. All eggs will be destroyed. and the condition O, the meat of the nut will be so changed that it will not become fiinty by fur ther curing for winter use. A the some time it will be in nowise 6 boiled chestnut. The nuts may be