stored and goes through the natural process of heating in the bins, these microscopical eggs hatch into larvae, pass swiftly into the pupal stage, and from that to their voracious period where they destroy their weight in foodstuffs every few hours. Life cycle succeeds life cycle till the grain is ruined. Cereal manufacturers had tried a thousand methods of preventing these losses. Petroleum, pyrethrums, emulsions, lime, and gases were used. All of them were pathetically useless. Their attempts spoiled the food value of the grains. The finest milling processes could not eliminate the microscopical eggs. The confused flour beetle was and is still the worst menThis and others caused sales to fall off, ruined trade prestige, and affected the whole cereal markets. Mills, as a consequence, have run but a part of the year and the manufacturers are always underselling their markets. ace. END VIEW OF FIRST WEEVIL KILLING MACHINE NOW IN USE IN ST. LOUIS The grain pours into the hopper. The Hooker process, used to overcome these evils, consists of two cylinders arranged horizontally, one above the other. They are connected by a smaller upright cylinder. The grain, or cereal, is carried from the grinding rooms by a spout, emptying into a feeding hopper swung above one end of the upper cylinder. The grain drops through a valve-like door, passes into the metal case and is caught by a revolving frame. fitted with narrow blades running lengthwise of the chamber. These blades catch the grain, pick it up, drop it, again pick it up all the while slowly passing it toward the far end of the cylinder. While the cereal is being turned over. and over in this upper chamber, a strong, gaseous vapor is mixing with it, searching out and killing every vestige of animal life. This formal gas constitutes twenty per cent of the volume of the cylinder's cubic contents. It rushes into the chamber from a small retort bolted to the framework. When the cereal leaves the first cylinder, it drops through a circular trap door into a similar chamber below. The formal gas has done its work, but all traces of it must be removed from the foodstuff. This is done in the lower cylinder, where revolving blades stir the grain while it is being subjected to a strong blast of ammoniated hot air. A retort of a capacity of several gallons is fitted to the lower part of the framework. Here the ammonia and air are heated. The mixture is driven through the lower cylinder by a powerful electric fan. The ammonia is the gaseous reagent for the formal vapor. It completely neutralizes all traces of the formal gas. The cereal comes from the machine unchanged chemically, free from disagreeable or other odors, and as pure as it is possible to make foodstuffs. Unless re-infected there will never be another vestige of animal life in it. The cost of treating any cereal by the process is quite small. Half a ton of rolled oats can be rid of weevils forever at a cost, for the whole operation, of about ten cents. The machine itself is simple, easy to construct, and can be operated at the cost of a few cents an hour. The cost feature of the whole scheme is insignificant. Its use is now freeing one manufacturer from any dread of the familiar "returned shipments". Its users believe that it will wipe out that dread bugaboo-loss of trade and depreciation. of business prestige. For at least twenty years the experts of the United States Department of Agriculture had tried to help the despairing grain men. Back in 1893, Alabama was losing ten per cent of her crop yield through weevil ravages. The loss in that State for that year totaled over a million and a half dollars. In eight States Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas-the annual losses have reached annually the grand total of twenty million dollars. North Carolina has suffered especially from the Angoumois moth, since its introduction from France in 1736. Weevils, moths, and meal worms have hurt the grain-exporting trade of America. England, France, and Germany are hungry for American grains, but they are forced to. shade the prices they pay because of the presence of these destroyers in American grains. The long voyage gives them time to work ruin to the cargo. Hamburg, Liverpool, and Bordeaux would be heavier buyers of American wheat, oats, and barley were it not for these prolific pests, which thus, indirectly, damage our export trade. Let me live in a house by the side of the road, The men who are good and the men who are bad, As good and as bad as I. I would not sit in the scorner's seat Nor hurl the cynic's ban, Let me live in the house by the side of the road And be a friend of man. Your "Go ahead, niggah," retorted Sambo. "Go ahead and hab me arrested. Ah'll mek yo' prove whar yo' got dem chickens yo'seff !"— Harper's Weekly. Weakening "YES," said the old man, "I find my strength is failing somewhat. I used to walk around the block every morning, but lately I feel so tired when I get half way round I have to turn and come back."-Woman's Home Companion. Tut, tut "You will forgive me if I-er-ask you something-something-" "Sure, I will. I knew you would be asking it soon." "Ah, you know what I am about to ask you? Your heart has told you what-" "Sure. You're going to ask me what time the last car goes by."-Houston Post. Her Idea A GENTLEMAN who had been in Chicago only three days, but who had been paying attention to a prominent Chicago belle, wanted to propose, but was afraid he would be thought too hasty. He delicately broached the subject as follows: "If I were to speak to you of marriage, after having only made your acquaintance three days ago, what would you say to it?" "Well, I should say never put off till to morrow that which you should have done the day before yesterday."-Life. We Place Him DAY-"What kind of a fellow is he?" BILL "Well, he claps at the motion pictures."-Fun. YING Mere Inadvertence "ONE of the preachers comes forward with the declaration that the devil is not mentioned in the Old Testament." "What of it?" "Well, he claims that, there being no mention of him in the Old Testament, there can not be a devil." "That's no proof. The Old Testament does not mention the Illinois legislature, but there G IVE the Japanese our commonplace hats and they will succeed in evolving the most charming mediaeval illusions with them, not only in the way they deform them but even by the mere trick of putting them on. Give them the last word in comfort in their railway coaches and they will sprawl over the seats so picturesquely that you will feel more Oriental in them than in any of their temples. Give them some modern agricultural or industrial implement and they will lend it the aspect of an infernal machine of the Inquisition. Give 99 them gas or electricity and they will fit it so delicately into their fragile frame houses and tiny stores as to enhance the charms that must have been half hidden before. "Do you think Japan ever will be Christianized?" I asked, in Sapporo, the other day the well-known author of "The Ainus of Japan", the Rev. Mr. Batchelor, though what I really thought of asking was, "Do you think there is any danger of Japan ever becoming Christian?" And the Reverend answered: "If it ever happens, it will be Japanized Christianity and not Christianized Japan." |