stack, as being unfit for human consumption, this state of decay being mainly caused by the moth larvae. That is an economic loss which the whole of the community has to bear.

12136. One way of preventing it is to dig potatoes at the right time and store them in a dark shed?—Yes. The potato moth and the eel-worm are the two great menaces. We are fighting desperately to keep the eel-worm out of the State, hence the strictness of the regulations. It is really more serious than the potato moth, because it does not confine itself to potatoes and tomatoes. There is no known cheap and effective cure for the eel-worm. Once the land is infected it has be condemned for a number of years. The present price of chemicals make it impossible to economically use them. The only process is complete fallowing and the constant working of that fallow, then the trouble is ultimately dried out. The eel-worm is only one twenty-fifth of an inch long, is capable of living for long periods in a dry desiccated form, and when moisture and heat is applied the eel-warm revives. You can take ear cockle in wheat. There you see a dry mummified seed of wheat almost like a blackball of smut. Put it in water for 24 hours and this seemingly dry ball becomes a writhing mass of microscopic worms. In their own interest all merchants dealing with produce ought to have a room in which they could put a truck of potatoes or wheat and fumigate it. At present I do not know of any real fumigation chamber other than the Government fruit importation chambers at Fremantle, which I think The Government ought to allow to be used by merchants for the purpose of fumigation at a reasonable charge.

12137. By Mr. PAYNTER: Is anything being done towards discovering a way to keep weevils out of wheat? —That work is being undertaken in the Eastern States. To attempt it here would be duplication. We have not the staff to do it here. Whatever will effectually treat the weevil in the Eastern State will treat it here. Professor Lefroy, the Imperial entomologist, is working on it in New South Wales, where the conditions are much the same as here . The weevil requires 10 per cent, of moisture, and we have endeavoured to store the wheat inland in order to keep it away from the damp air of the coast. But we have had so many thunderstorms and such heavy rain that I am afraid there may be a good deal of wet wheat about.

12138. By the CHAIRMAN: Does the weevil spontaneously generate in 10 per cent. of moisture? —No, in insect life there is no such thing as spontaneous generation. the egg is laid by the female in the grain, and it may take days or months to hatch. Eventually it gives birth to a legless larva which feeds on the grain and uses the grain in which to form its own pupa.

12139. At some stage the weevil lays an egg in the wheat. Does that occur in the wheat field? —No. Last year I took 35 samples from each of the State farms, including different grades of hard and soft wheat and after 16 months of storage is not any sign of weevil. This in itself is definite evidence that it is in the storage where weevil invasion take place. Wheat is clean enough until put into bags or stored.

12140. However, the weevil will not germinate until there is 10 per cent. of moisture? —That is so, but it must be remembered that the wheat itself contains somewhere about eight per cent . of moisture . Weevil will not seriously increase in grain unless there is more than 10 per cent of moisture. One of the processes now being experimented with is the passing of the wheat over a series of heated trays with a view to killing of the weevils and at the same time drying the wheat.

12141. By Mr. PAYNTER: Would cold water have any effect in cleaning bags as against weevils? —No unless the bags were immersed for some hours. water sufficiently heated would do it.

(The witness retired.)

The Commission adjourned.