After the line of matrices and spaces has served its purpose, it is raised from the casting position and moved to the right, as shown by the dotted lines and arrows in Fig. 2. The teeth in the upper ends of the matrices are engaged with a toothed bar R, known as the second elevator. This elevator swings upward, as shown by dotted lines, carrying the matrices to the level of the upper end of the magazine, and leaving the spaces or justifiers behind to be transferred to their magazine H.
The distributing mechanism consists essentially of a fixed bar T, lying in a horizontal position above the upper end of the magazine, and having along its lower edge, as shown in Fig. 2, horizontal teeth to engage the teeth in the upper end of the matrices and hold them in suspension. The teeth of the matrix for each letter differ in number or arrangement, or both, from the teeth of matrices bearing other letters, and the teeth on the lower edge of the distributor bar are correspondingly varied in arrangement at different points in the length of the bar. (See Fig. 2.)
The matrices are moved forward into engagement with the distributor bar and also into engagement with the threads of horizontal screws U, which are extended parallel with the distributor bar and constantly rotated so that they cause the matrices to travel one after another along the distributor and over the mouths of the channels in the magazines. Each matrix is held in suspension until it arrives over its proper channel, where for the first time its teeth bear such relation to those of the bar that it is released and permitted to fall into the magazine.
The speed of the machine, which is commonly from four to five thousand ems per hour, but which has reached ten thousand and upward in competitive trials, is due to the fact that the matrices pursue a circulatory course, leaving the magazine at the lower end, passing thence to the line and to the casting mechanism, and finally returning to the top of the magazine. This permits the composition of one line, the casting of another, and the distribution of a third to proceed simultaneously.
ASSEMBLING AND KEYBOARD MECHANISMS
The matrices pass through the magazine by gravity. Their release is effected by mechanisms shown in Figs. 5 and 6, which are vertical sections through the magazine, the keyboard, and intermediate connections. Under each channel of the magazine, there is an escapement B, consisting of a small lever rocking at its centre on a horizontal pivot, and carrying at its opposite ends two dogs or pawls b, b, which are projected up alternately into the magazine by the motion of the lever. The key-rod C, suspended from the rear end of the escapement B, tends to hold the lower pawl b in an elevated position, as shown in Fig. 5, so that it engages under the upper ear of the foremost matrix to prevent its escape.
When the escapement B is rocked, it withdraws the lower pawl b, as shown in Fig. 6, at the same time raising the upper pawl, so that it engages and momentarily arrests the next matrix. As soon as the first matrix has escaped, the escapement resumes its original position, the upper pawl falling, while the lower one rises so as to hold the second matrix, which assumes the position previously occupied by the one released.
Thus it is that the alternate rising and falling of the two escapement pawls permits the matrices to escape one at a time. It is evident that the escapements could be operated directly by rods connected with the finger-keys, but this direct connection is objectionable because of the labor required on the part of the operator, and the danger that the keys may not be fully depressed. Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Fig. 10. Moreover, it is essential that the escapements should act individually with moderate speed to the end that the matrices may be properly engaged and disengaged by the pawls. For these reasons, and to secure easy and uniform action of the parts, the mechanism shown in Figs. 5 and 6 is introduced between the finger-keys and escapements. The vertical rods C, which actuate the escapements, are guided in the main frame, and each is urged downward by a spring c. Each rod C terminates directly over one end of a rising and falling yoke-bar c2, turning on a pivot c3 at the opposite end. Each of the yokes c2 is slotted vertically to admit an eccentric c4 turning on a pivot therein. A constantly rotating rubber-covered roll c5 is extended across the entire keyboard beneath the cams, which stand normally as shown in Fig. 5, out of contact with the roll. When the parts are in this position, the cam-yoke is sustained at its free end by the yoke-trigger c8, and a cross-bar in the cam engages a vertical pin c7 on the frame, whereby the cam is prevented from falling on to the roller, as it has a tendency to do. Each of the yoke-triggers c6 is connected with a vertical bar c8, which is in turn connected to the rear end of a finger-key lever D. The parts stand normally at rest in the position shown in Fig. 5, the roll c5 turning freely under the cam without effect upon it.
When the finger-key is depressed, it raises the bar c8, which in turn trips the yoke-trigger c6 from under the cam-yoke c2, permitting the latter to fall, thereby lowering the cam c4 into peripheral engagement with the rubber roll, at the same time disengaging the cam from the stop-pin c7. The roll, engaging frictionally with the cam, causes the latter to turn on its centre in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 6.
Owing to the eccentric shape of the cam, its rotation while resting on the roller causes it to lift the yoke c2 above its original position, so that it acts upon the escapement rod C, lifting it and causing it to reverse the position of the escapement B, to release the matrix, as plainly seen in Fig. 6.
While this is taking place, the yoke-trigger c6 resumes its first position, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 6, so that as the rotating cam lowers the yoke, it is again supported in its first position, the cam at the same time turning forward by momentum out of engagement with the roll until arrested in its original position by the pin c7.
It will be observed that the parts between each key lever and escapement operate independently of the others, so that a number of cams may be in engagement with the rollers at one time, and a number of escapements at different stages of their action at one time.
The matrices falling from the magazine descend through the front channels and are received on the inclined belt F, on which they are carried over and guided on the upper rounding surface of the assembler entrance-block f1, by which they are guided downward in front of the star-wheel f2, which pushes them forward one after another.
The spaces or justifiers I, released from their magazine H, as heretofore described, descend into the assembler G in front of the star-wheel in the same manner as the matrices.
The line in course of composition is sustained at its front end by a yielding finger or resistant g, secured to a horizontal assembler slide g2, the purpose of these parts being to hold the line together in compact form.
As the matrices approach the line, their upper ends are carried over a spring g3, projecting through the assembler face-plate from the rear, as shown in Fig. 7, its purpose being to hold the matrices forward and prevent them from falling back in such a manner that succeeding matrices and spaces or justifiers will pass improperly ahead of them. The descending matrices also pass beneath a long depending spring g4, which should be so adjusted as barely to permit the passage of the thickest matrix.
After the composition of the line is completed in the assembling elevator G, as shown in Fig. 8, the elevator is raised as shown in Fig. 9, so as to present the line between the depending fingers of the transfer-carriage N, which then moves to the left to the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 9, thereby bringing the line into the first elevator O, which then descends, carrying the line of matrices downwards, as shown in Fig. 10, to its position in front of the mold and between the confining jaws P, P, mounted in the main frame, which determine the length of the line.
Figs. 11 and 12 show the casting mechanism in vertical section from front to rear. When the first elevator O lowers the line, as just described, the mold and the pot M stand in their rearward positions, as shown in Fig. 11.
The mold-carrying wheel is sustained by a horizontal slide, and as soon as the matrix line is lowered to the casting position, a cam at the rear pushes the slide and mold wheel forward until the front face of the mold is closed tightly against the rear face of the matrix line, as shown in Fig. 12.
While this is taking place, the pot, having its supporting legs mounted on a horizontal shaft, swings forward until its mouth is closed tightly against the back of the mold, as shown in Fig. 12. While the parts are in this position, the justifying bar Q is driven up and pushes the spaces or justifiers upward through the line of matrices until the line is expanded or elongated to fill completely the gap between jaws P, P.
In order to secure exact alignment of the matrices vertically and horizontally, the bar Q acts repeatedly on the spaces, and the line is slightly unlocked endwise and relocked. This is done that the matrices may be temporarily released to facilitate the accurate adjustment demanded. While the justified line is locked fast between the jaws, the elevator, and the mold, the plunger m2 in the pot descends and drives the molten metal before it through the spout or mouth of the pot into the mold, which is filled under pressure, so that a solid slug is produced against the matrices. The pot then retreats, and its mouth breaks away from the back of the slug in the mold, while, at the same time, the mold retreats to draw the type-characters on the contained slug out of the matrices. The mold wheel now revolves, carrying the rear edge of the slug past a stationary trimming-knife, not shown, and around to the position in front of the ejector, as previously described and shown in Fig. 4, whereupon the ejector advances and drives the slug between two side trimming-knives into the galley at the front.
DISTRIBUTION
After the casting action the first elevator O rises and carries the matrix line above the original or composing level, as shown in Fig. 13. The line is then drawn horizontally to the right until the teeth of the matrices engage the toothed elevator bar R, which swings upward with the matrices, thus separating the matrices from the spaces or justifiers I, which remain suspended in the frame, so that they may be pushed to the right, as indicated by the arrow, into their magazine.
When the line of matrices is raised to the distributor, it is necessary that the matrices shall be separated and presented one at a time to the distributor bar, between the threads of the horizontal carrier-screws. This is accomplished as shown in Figs. 14 and 15. A horizontal pusher or line-shifter S carries the line of matrices forward from the elevator bar R into the so-called distributor box, containing at its opposite sides two rails u, having near their forward ends shoulders u2, against which the forward matrix abuts so as to prevent further advance of the line, which is urged constantly forward by the follower or line-shifter S. A vertically reciprocating lifting finger V has its upper end shouldered to engage beneath the foremost matrix, so as to push it upward until its upper ears are lifted above the detaining shoulder u2, so that they may ride forward on the upwardly inclined inner ends of the rails, as shown in Fig. 14. The matrices thus lifted are engaged by the screws and carried forward, and, as they move forward, they are gradually raised by the rails until the teeth finally engage themselves on the distributor bar T, from which they are suspended as they are carried forward, over the mouth of the magazine, until they fall into their respective channels, as shown in Fig. 15.
The distributor box also contains on opposite sides shorter rails, u4, adapted to engage the lower ends of the matrices, to hold them in position as they are lifted. The lifting finger V is mounted on a horizontal pivot in one end of an elbow lever mounted on pivot v2 and actuated by a cam on the end of one of the carrier-screws, as shown in Figs. 2 and 15.
TRIMMING-KNIVES
In practice there is occasionally found a slight irregularity in the thickness of slugs, and thin fins are sometimes cast around the forward edges. For the purpose of reducing them to a uniform thickness, they are driven on their way to the galley between two vertical knives, as shown in Figs. 4 and 16. The inner knife is stationary, but the outer knife is adjustable in order that it may accommodate slugs of different thicknesses. This adjustment is made by the knife being seated at its outer edge against a supporting bar or wedge, having at opposite ends two inclined surfaces seated against supporting screws in the knife-block. A lever engages a pin on the wedge for the purpose of moving it endwise; when moving in one direction, it forces the knife inward toward the stationary knife, and when moved in the other direction, it forces it to retreat under the influence of a spring seated in the block. The wedge is provided with a series of teeth engaged by a spring-actuated pin or dog, whereby the wedge and the knife are stopped in proper positions to insure the exact space required between the two knives.
The back knife, secured to the frame for trimming the base of the slug as it is carried past by the revolving wheel, should be kept moderately sharp and adjusted so as to fit closely against the back of the passing mold. Particular attention should be paid to this feature. The edge of the knife must bear uniformly across the face of the mold.
The front knives, between which the slug is ejected, should not be made too sharp. After being sharpened, the thin edge can be advantageously removed by the use of a thin oilstone applied against the side face; that is, against the face past which the slug is carried.
The stationary or left-hand knife should be so adjusted as to align exactly with the inner side of the mold. Under proper conditions this knife does not trim the side face of the slug, but acts only to remove any slight fins or projections at the front edge.
The right-hand knife, adjustable by means of a wedge and lever, should stand exactly parallel with the stationary knife. It trims the side of the slug on which the ribs are formed, and it serves to bring the slug to the exact thickness required.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] From Theodore L. De Vinne's Modern Methods of Book Composition, pp. 403-425. The Century Company, New York, 1904.
THE EXPOSITION OF A PROCESS IN NATURE
THE PEA WEEVIL[3]
Jean Henri Fabre
Peas are held in high esteem by mankind. From remote ages man has endeavored, by careful culture, to produce larger, tenderer, and sweeter varieties. Of an adaptable character, under careful treatment the plant has evolved in a docile fashion, and has ended by giving us what the ambition of the gardener desired. To-day we have gone far beyond the yield of the Varrons and Columelles, and further still beyond the original pea; from the wild seeds confided to the soil by the first man who thought to scratch up the surface of the earth, perhaps with the half-jaw of a cave-bear, whose powerful canine tooth would serve him as a ploughshare!
Where is it, this original pea, in the world of spontaneous vegetation? Our own country has nothing resembling it. Is it to be found elsewhere? On this point botany is silent, or replies only with vague probabilities.
We find the same ignorance elsewhere on the subject of the majority of our alimentary vegetables. Whence comes wheat, the blessed grain which gives us bread? No one knows. You will not find it here, except in the care of man; nor will you find it abroad. In the East, the birthplace of agriculture, no botanist has ever encountered the sacred ear growing of itself on unbroken soil.
Barley, oats, and rye, the turnip and the beet, the beetroot, the carrot, the pumpkin, and so many other vegetable products, leave us in the same perplexity; their point of departure is unknown to us, or at most suspected behind the impenetrable cloud of the centuries. Nature delivered them to us in the full vigor of the thing untamed, when their value as food was indifferent, as to-day she offers us the sloe, the bullace, the blackberry, the crab; she gave them to us in the state of imperfect sketches, for us to fill out and complete; it was for our skill and our labor patiently to induce the nourishing pulp which was the earliest form of capital, whose interest is always increasing in the primordial bank of the tiller of the soil.
As storehouses of food the cereal and the vegetable are, for the greater part, the work of man. The fundamental species, a poor resource in their original state, we borrowed as they were from the natural treasury of the vegetable world; the perfected race, rich in alimentary materials, is the result of our art.
If wheat, peas, and all the rest are indispensable to us, our care, by a just return, is absolutely necessary to them. Such as our needs have made them, incapable of resistance in the bitter struggle for survival, these vegetables, left to themselves without culture, would rapidly disappear, despite the numerical abundance of their seeds, as the foolish sheep would disappear were there no more sheep-folds.
They are our work, but not always our exclusive property. Wherever food is amassed, the consumers collect from the four corners of the sky; they invite themselves to the feast of abundance, and the richer the food the greater their numbers. Man, who alone is capable of inducing agrarian abundance, is by that very fact the giver of an immense banquet at which legions of feasters take their place. By creating more juicy and more generous fruits, he calls to his enclosures, despite himself, thousands and thousands of hungry creatures, against whose appetites his prohibitions are helpless. The more he produces, the larger is the tribute demanded of him. Wholesale agriculture and vegetable abundance favor our rival, the insect.
This is the immanent law. Nature, with an equal zeal, offers her mighty breast to all her nurslings alike; to those who live by the goods of others no less than to the producers. For us, who plough, sow, and reap, and weary ourselves with labor, she ripens the wheat; she ripens it also for the little Calender-beetle, which, although exempted from the labor of the fields, enters our granaries none the less, and there, with its pointed beak, nibbles our wheat, grain by grain, to the husk.
For us, who dig, weed, and water, bent with fatigue and burned by the sun, she swells the pods of the pea; she swells them also for the weevil, which does no gardener's work, yet takes its share of the harvest at its own hour, when the earth is joyful with the new life of spring.
Let us follow the manoeuvres of this insect which takes its tithe of the green pea. I, a benevolent rate-payer, will allow it to take its dues; it is precisely to benefit it that I have sown a few rows of the beloved plant in a corner of my garden. Without other invitation on my part than this modest expenditure of seed-peas, it arrives punctually during the month of May. It has learned that this stony soil, rebellious at the culture of the kitchen-gardener, is bearing peas for the first time. In all haste therefore it has hurried, an agent of the entomological revenue system, to demand its dues.
Whence does it come? It is impossible to say precisely. It has come from some shelter, somewhere, in which it has passed the winter in a state of torpor. The plane-tree, which sheds its rind during the heats of the summer, furnishes an excellent refuge for homeless insects under its partly detached sheets of bark.
I have often found our weevil in such a winter refuge. Sheltered under the dead covering of the plane, or otherwise protected while the winter lasts, it awakens from its torpor at the first touch of a kindly sun. The almanac of the instincts has aroused it; it knows as well as the gardener when the pea-vines are in flower, and seeks its favorite plant, journeying thither from every side, running with quick, short steps, or nimbly flying.
A small head, a fine snout, a costume of ashen grey sprinkled with brown, flattened wing-covers, a dumpy, compact body, with two large black dots on the rear segment—such is the summary portrait of my visitor. The middle of May approaches, and with it the van of the invasion.
They settle on the flowers, which are not unlike white-winged butterflies. I see them at the base of the blossom or inside the cavity of the "keel" of the flower, but the majority explore the petals and take possession of them. The time for laying the eggs has not yet arrived. The morning is mild; the sun is warm without being oppressive. It is the moment of nuptial flights; the time of rejoicing in the splendor of the sunshine. Everywhere are creatures rejoicing to be alive. Couples come together, part, and re-form. When towards noon the heat becomes too great, the weevils retire into the shadow, taking refuge singly in the folds of the flowers whose secret corners they know so well. To-morrow will be another day of festival, and the next day also, until the pods, emerging from the shelter of the "keel" of the flower, are plainly visible, enlarging from day to day.
A few gravid females, more pressed for time than the others, confide their eggs to the growing pod, flat and meager as it issues from its floral sheath. These hastily laid batches of eggs, expelled perhaps by the exigencies of an ovary incapable of further delay, seem to me in serious danger; for the seed in which the grub must establish itself is as yet no more than a tender speck of green, without firmness and without any farinaceous tissue. No larva could possibly find sufficient nourishment there, unless it waited for the pea to mature.
But is the grub capable of fasting for any length of time when once hatched? It is doubtful. The little I have seen tells me that the newborn grub must establish itself in the midst of its food as quickly as possible, and that it perishes unless it can do so. I am therefore of opinion that such eggs as are deposited in immature pods are lost. However, the race will hardly suffer by such a loss, so fertile is the little beetle. We shall see directly how prodigal the female is of her eggs, the majority of which are destined to perish.
The important part of the maternal task is completed by the end of May, when the shells are swollen by the expanding peas, which have reached their final growth, or are but little short of it. I was anxious to see the female Bruchus at work in her quality of Curculionid, as our classification declares her.[4] The other weevils are Rhyncophora, beaked insects, armed with a drill with which to prepare the hole in which the egg is laid. The Bruchus possesses only a short snout or muzzle, excellently adapted for eating soft tissues, but valueless as a drill.
The method of installing the family is consequently absolutely different. There are no industrious preparations as with the Balinidae, the Larinidae, and the Rhynchitides. Not being equipped with a long oviscapt, the mother sows her eggs in the open, with no protection against the heat of the sun and the variations of temperature. Nothing could be simpler, and nothing more perilous to the eggs, in the absence of special characteristics which, would enable them to resist the alternate trials of heat and cold, moisture and drought.
In the caressing sunlight of ten o'clock in the morning, the mother runs up and down the chosen pod, first on one side, then on the other, with a jerky, capricious, unmethodical gait. She repeatedly extrudes a short oviduct, which oscillates right and left as though to graze the skin of the pod. An egg follows, which is abandoned as soon as laid.
A hasty touch of the oviduct, first here, then there, on the green skin of the pea-pod, and that is all. The egg is left there, unprotected, in the full sunlight. No choice of position is made such as might assist the grub when it seeks to penetrate its larder. Some eggs are laid on the swellings created by the peas beneath; others in the barren valleys which separate them. The first are close to the peas, the second at some distance from them. In short, the eggs of the Bruchus are laid at random, as though on the wing.
We observe a still more serious vice: the number of eggs is out of all proportion to the number of peas in the pod. Let us note at the outset that each grub requires one pea; it is the necessary ration, and is largely sufficient for one larva, but is not enough for several, nor even for two. One pea to each grub, neither more nor less, is the unchangeable rule.
We should expect to find signs of a procreative economy which would impel the female to take into account the number of peas contained in the pod which she has just explored; we might expect her to set a numerical limit on her eggs in conformity with that of the peas available. But no such limit is observed. The rule of one pea to one grub is always contradicted by the multiplicity of consumers.
My observations are unanimous on this point. The number of eggs deposited on one pod always exceeds the number of peas available, and often to a scandalous degree. However meager the contents of the pod, there is a superabundance of consumers. Dividing the sum of the eggs upon such or such a pod by that of the peas contained therein, I find there are five to eight claimants for each pea; I have found ten, and there is no reason why this prodigality should not go still further. Many are called, but few are chosen! What is to become of all these supernumeraries, perforce excluded from the banquet for want of space?
The eggs are of a fairly bright amber yellow, cylindrical in form, smooth, and rounded at the ends. Their length is at most a twenty-fifth of an inch. Each is affixed to the pod by means of a slight network of threads of coagulated albumen. Neither wind nor rain can loosen their hold.
The mother not infrequently emits them two at a time, one above the other; not infrequently, also, the uppermost of the two eggs hatches before the other, while the latter fades and perishes. What was lacking to this egg, that it should fail to produce a grub? Perhaps a bath of sunlight; the incubating heat of which the outer egg has robbed it. Whether on account of the fact that it is shadowed by the other egg, or for other reasons, the elder of the eggs in a group of two rarely follows the normal course, but perishes on the pod, dead without having lived.
There are exceptions to this premature end; sometimes the two eggs develop equally well; but such cases are exceptional, so that the Bruchid family would be reduced to about half its dimensions if the binary system were the rule. To the detriment of our peas and to the advantage of the beetle, the eggs are commonly laid one by one and in isolation.
A recent emergence is shown by a little sinuous ribbon-like mark, pale or whitish, where the skin of the pod is raised and withered, which starts from the egg and is the work of the newborn larva; a sub-epidermic tunnel along which the grub works its way, while seeking a point from which it can escape into a pea. This point once attained, the larva, which is scarcely a twenty-fifth of an inch in length, and is white with a black head, perforates the envelope and plunges into the capacious hollow of the pod.
It has reached the peas and crawls upon the nearest. I have observed it with the magnifier. Having explored the green globe, its new world, it begins to sink a well perpendicularly into the sphere. I have often seen it halfway in, wriggling its tail in the effort to work the quicker. In a short time the grub disappears and is at home. The point of entry, minute, but always easily recognizable by its brown coloration on the pale green background of the pea, has no fixed location; it may be at almost any point on the surface of the pea, but an exception is usually made of the lower half; that is, the hemisphere whose pole is formed by the supporting stem.
It is precisely in this portion that the germ is found, which will not be eaten by the larva, and will remain capable of developing into a plant, in spite of the large aperture made by the emergence of the adult insect. Why is this particular portion left untouched? What are the motives that safeguard the germ?
It goes without saying that the Bruchus is not considering the gardener. The pea is meant for it and for no one else. In refusing the few bites that would lead to the death of the seed, it has no intention of limiting its destruction. It abstains from other motives.
Let us remark that the peas touch laterally, and are pressed one against the other, so that the grub, when searching for a point of attack, cannot circulate at will. Let us also note that the lower pole expands into the umbilical excrescence, which is less easy of perforation than those parts protected by the skin alone. It is even possible that the umbilicum, whose organization differs from that of the rest of the pea, contains a peculiar sap that is distasteful to the little grub.
Such, doubtless, is the reason why the peas exploited by the Bruchus are still able to germinate. They are damaged, but not dead, because the invasion was conducted from the free hemisphere, a portion less vulnerable and more easy of access. Moreover, as the pea in its entirety is too large for a single grub to consume, the consumption is limited to the portion preferred by the consumer, and this portion is not the essential portion of the pea.
With other conditions, with very much smaller or very much larger seeds, we shall observe very different results. If too small, the germ will perish, gnawed like the rest by the insufficiently provisioned inmate; if too large, the abundance of food will permit of several inmates. Exploited in the absence of the pea, the cultivated vetch and the broad bean afford us an excellent example; the smaller seed, of which all but the skin is devoured, is left incapable of germination; but the large bean, even though it may have held a number of grubs, is still capable of sprouting.
Knowing that the pod always exhibits a number of eggs greatly in excess of the enclosed peas, and that each pea is the exclusive property of one grub, we naturally ask what becomes of the superfluous grubs. Do they perish outside when the more precocious have one by one taken their places in their vegetable larder? or do they succumb to the intolerant teeth of the first occupants? Neither explanation is correct. Let us relate the facts.
On all old peas—they are at this stage dry—from which the adult Bruchus has emerged, leaving a large round hole of exit, the magnifying-glass will show a variable number of fine reddish punctuations, perforated in the centre. What are these spots, of which I count five, six, and even more on a single pea? It is impossible to be mistaken: they are the points of entry of as many grubs. Several grubs have entered the pea, but of the whole group only one has survived, fattened, and attained the adult age. And the others? We shall see.
At the end of May, and in June, the period of egg-laying, let us inspect the still green and tender peas. Nearly all the peas invaded show us the multiple perforations already observed on the dry peas abandoned by the weevils. Does this actually mean that there are several grubs in the pea? Yes. Skin the peas in question, separate the cotyledons, and break them up as may be necessary. We shall discover several grubs, extremely youthful, curled up comma-wise, fat and lively, each in a little round niche in the body of the pea.
Peace and welfare seem to reign in the little community. There is no quarrelling, no jealousy between neighbors. The feast has commenced; food is abundant, and the feasters are separated one from another by the walls of uneaten substance. With this isolation in separate cells no conflicts need be feared; no sudden bite of the mandibles, whether intentional or accidental. All the occupants enjoy the same rights of property, the same appetite, and the same strength. How does this communal feast terminate?
Having first opened them, I place a number of peas which are found to be well peopled in a glass test-tube. I open others daily. In this way I keep myself informed as to the progress of the various larvae. At first nothing noteworthy is to be seen. Isolated in its narrow chamber, each grub nibbles the substance around it, peacefully and parsimoniously. It is still very small; a mere speck of food is a feast; but the contents of one pea will not suffice the whole number to the end. Famine is ahead, and all but one must perish.
Soon, indeed, the aspect of things is entirely changed. One of the grubs—that which occupies the central position in the pea—begins to grow more quickly than the others. Scarcely has it surpassed the others in size when the latter cease to eat, and no longer attempt to burrow forwards. They lie motionless and resigned; they die that gentle death which comes to unconscious lives. Henceforth the entire pea belongs to the sole survivor. Now what has happened that these lives around the privileged one should be thus annihilated? In default of a satisfactory reply, I will propose a suggestion.
In the centre of the pea, less ripened than the rest of the seed by the chemistry of the sun, may there not be a softer pulp, of a quality better adapted to the infantile digestion of the grub? There, perhaps, being nourished by tenderer, sweeter, and perhaps, more tasty tissues, the stomach becomes more vigorous, until it is fit to undertake less easily digested food. A nursling is fed on milk before proceeding to bread and broth. May not the central portion of the pea be the feeding-bottle of the Bruchid?
With equal rights, fired by an equal ambition, all the occupants of the pea bore their way towards the delicious morsel. The journey is laborious, and the grubs must rest frequently in their provisional niches. They rest; while resting they frugally gnaw the riper tissues surrounding them; they gnaw rather to open a way than to fill their stomachs.
Finally one of the excavators, favored by the direction taken, attains the central portion. It establishes itself there, and all is over; the others have only to die. How are they warned that the place is taken? Do they hear their brother gnawing at the walls of his lodging? can they feel the vibration set up by his nibbling mandibles? Something of the kind must happen, for from that moment they make no attempt to burrow further. Without struggling against the fortunate winner, without seeking to dislodge him, those which are beaten in the race give themselves up to death. I admire this candid resignation on the part of the departed.
Another condition—that of space—is also present as a factor. The pea weevil is the largest of our Bruchidae. When it attains the adult stage, it requires a certain amplitude of lodging, which the other weevils do not require in the same degree. A pea provides it with a sufficiently spacious cell; nevertheless, the cohabitation of two in one pea would be impossible; there would be no room, even were the two to put up with a certain discomfort. Hence the necessity of an inevitable decimation, which will suppress all the competitors save one.
Now the superior volume of the broad bean, which is almost as much beloved by the weevil as the pea, can lodge a considerable community, and the solitary can live as a cenobite. Without encroaching on the domain of their neighbors, five or six or more can find room in the one bean.
Moreover, each grub can find its infant diet; that is, that layer which, remote from the surface, hardens only gradually and remains full of sap until a comparatively late period. This inner layer represents the crumb of a loaf, the rest of the bean being the crust.
In a pea, a sphere of much less capacity, it occupies the central portion; a limited point at which the grub develops, and lacking which it perishes; but in the bean it lines the wide adjoining faces of the two flattened cotyledons. No matter where the point of attack is made, the grub has only to bore straight down when it quickly reaches the softer tissues. What is the result? I have counted the eggs adhering to a bean-pod and the beans included in the pod, and comparing the two figures I find that there is plenty of room for the whole family at the rate of five or six dwellers in each bean. No superfluous larvae perish of hunger when barely issued from the egg; all have their share of the ample provision; all live and prosper. The abundance of food balances the prodigal fertility of the mother.
If the Bruchus were always to adopt the broad bean for the establishment of her family, I could well understand the exuberant allowance of eggs to one pod; a rich foodstuff easily obtained evokes a large batch of eggs. But the case of the pea perplexes me. By what aberration does the mother abandon her children to starvation on this totally insufficient vegetable? Why so many grubs to each pea when one pea is sufficient only for one grub?
Matters are not so arranged in the general balance-sheet of life. A certain foresight seems to rule over the ovary so that the number of mouths is in proportion to the abundance or scarcity of the food consumed. The Scarabaeus, the Sphex, the Necrophorus, and other insects which prepare and preserve alimentary provision for their families, are all of a narrowly limited fertility, because the balls of dung, the dead or paralyzed insects, or the buried corpses of animals on which their offspring are nourished are provided only at the cost of laborious efforts.
The ordinary bluebottle, on the contrary, which lays her eggs upon butcher's meat or carrion, lays them in enormous batches. Trusting in the inexhaustible riches represented by the corpse, she is prodigal of offspring, and takes no account of numbers. In other cases the provision is acquired by audacious brigandage, which exposes the newly born offspring to a thousand mortal accidents. In such cases the mother balances the chances of destruction by an exaggerated flux of eggs. Such is the case with the Meloides, which, stealing the goods of others under conditions of the greatest peril, are accordingly endowed with a prodigious fertility.
The Bruchus knows neither the fatigues of the laborious, obliged to limit the size of her family, nor the misfortunes of the parasite, obliged to produce an exaggerated number of offspring. Without painful search, entirely at her ease, merely moving in the sunshine over her favorite plant, she can insure a sufficient provision for each of her offspring; she can do so, yet is foolish enough to over-populate the pod of the pea; a nursery insufficiently provided, in which the great majority will perish of starvation. This ineptitude is a thing I cannot understand; it clashes too completely with the habitual foresight of the maternal instinct.
I am inclined to believe that the pea is not the original food plant of the Bruchus. The original plant must rather have been the bean, one seed of which is capable of supporting a dozen or more larvae. With the larger cotyledon the crying disproportion between the number of eggs and the available provision disappears.
Moreover, it is indubitable that the bean is of earlier date than the pea. Its exceptional size and its agreeable flavor would certainly have attracted the attention of man from the remotest periods. The bean is a ready-made mouthful, and would be of the greatest value to the hungry tribe. Primitive man would at an early date have sown it beside his wattled hut. Coming from Central Asia by long stages, their wagons drawn by shaggy oxen and rolling on the circular discs cut from the trunks of trees, the early immigrants would have brought to our virgin land, first the bean, then the pea, and finally the cereal, that best of safeguards against famine. They taught us the care of herds, and the use of bronze, the material of the first metal implement. Thus the dawn of civilization arose over France. With the bean did those ancient teachers also involuntarily bring us the insect which to-day disputes it with us? It is doubtful; the Bruchidae seem to be indigenous. At all events, I find them levying tribute from various indigenous plants, wild vegetables which have never tempted the appetite of man. They abound in particular upon the great forest vetch (Lathyrus latifolius), with its magnificent heads of flowers and long handsome pods. The seeds are not large, being indeed smaller than the garden pea; but, eaten to the very skin, as they invariably are, each is sufficient to the needs of its grub.
We must not fail to note their number. I have counted more than twenty in a single pod, a number unknown in the case of the pea, even in the most prolific varieties. Consequently this superb vetch is in general able to nourish without much loss the family confided to its pod.
Where the forest vetch is lacking, the Bruchus, none the less, bestows its habitual prodigality of eggs upon another vegetable of similar flavor, but incapable of nourishing all the grubs: for example, the travelling vetch (Vicia peregrina) or the cultivated vetch (Vicia saliva). The number of eggs remains high even upon insufficient pods, because the original food-plant offered a copious provision, both in the multiplicity and the size of the seeds. If the Bruchus is really a stranger, let us regard the bean as the original food-plant; if indigenous, the large vetch.
Sometime in the remote past we received the pea, growing it at first in the prehistoric vegetable garden which already supplied the bean. It was found a better article of diet than the broad bean, which to-day, after such good service, is comparatively neglected. The weevil was of the same opinion as man, and without entirely forgetting the bean and the vetch it established the greater part of its tribe upon the pea, which from century to century was more widely cultivated. To-day we have to share our peas; the Bruchidae take what they need, and bestow their leavings on us.
This prosperity of the insect which is the offspring of the abundance and equality of our garden products is from another point of view equivalent to decadence. For the weevil, as for ourselves, progress in matters of food and drink is not always beneficial. The race would profit better if it remained frugal. On the bean and the vetch the Bruchus founded colonies in which the infant mortality was low. There was room for all. On the pea-vine, delicious though its fruits may be, the greater part of its offspring die of starvation. The rations are few, and the hungry mouths are multitudinous.
We will linger over this problem no longer. Let us observe the grub which has now become the sole tenant of the pea by the death of its brothers. It has had no part in their death; chance has favored it, that is all. In the centre of the pea, a wealthy solitude, it performs the duty of a grub, the sole duty of eating. It nibbles the walls enclosing it, enlarging its lodgment, which is always entirely filled by its corpulent body. It is well shaped, fat, and shining with health. If I disturb it, it turns gently in its niche and sways its head. This is its manner of complaining of my importunities. Let us leave it in peace.
It profits so greatly and so swiftly by its position that by the time the dog-days have come it is already preparing for its approaching liberation. The adult is not sufficiently well equipped to open for itself a way out through the pea, which is now completely hardened. The larva knows of this future helplessness, and with consummate art provides for its release. With its powerful mandibles it bores a channel of exit, exactly round, with extremely clean-cut sides. The most skilful ivory-carver could do no better.
To prepare the door of exit in advance is not enough; the grub must also provide for the tranquillity essential to the delicate processes of nymphosis. An intruder might enter by the open door and injure the helpless nymph. This passage must therefore remain closed. But how?
As the grub bores the passage of exit, it consumes the farinaceous matter without leaving a crumb. Having come to the skin of the pea, it stops short. This membrane, semi-translucid, is the door to the chamber of metamorphosis, its protection against the evil intentions of external creatures.
It is also the only obstacle which the adult will encounter at the moment of exit. To lessen the difficulty of opening it, the grub takes the precaution of gnawing at the inner side of the skin, all round the circumference, so as to make a line of least resistance. The perfect insect will only have to heave with its shoulder and strike a few blows with its head in order to raise the circular door and knock it off like the lid of a box. The passage of exit shows through the diaphanous skin of the pea as a large circular spot, which is darkened by the obscurity of the interior. What passes behind it is invisible, hidden as, it is behind a sort of ground-glass window.
A pretty invention, this little closed porthole, this barricade against the invader, this trap-door raised by a push when the time has come for the hermit to enter the world. Shall we credit it to the Bruchus? Did the ingenious insect conceive the undertaking? Did it think out a plan and work out a scheme of its own devising? This would be no small triumph for the brain of a weevil. Before coming to a conclusion, let us try an experiment.
I deprive certain occupied peas of their skin, and I dry them with abnormal rapidity, placing them in glass test-tubes. The grubs prosper as well as in the intact peas. At the proper time the preparations for emergence are made.
If the grub acts on its own inspiration, if it ceases to prolong its boring directly it recognizes that the outer coating, auscultated from time to time, is sufficiently thin, what will it do under the conditions of the present test? Feeling itself at the requisite distance from the surface, it will stop boring; it will respect the outer layer of the bare pea, and will thus obtain the indispensable protecting screen.
Nothing of the kind occurs. In every case the passage is completely excavated; the entrance gapes wide open, as large and as carefully executed as though the skin of the pea were in its place. Reasons of security have failed to modify the usual method of work. This open lodging has no defence against the enemy; but the grub exhibits no anxiety on this score.
Neither is it thinking of the outer enemy when it bores down to the skin when the pea is intact, and then stops short. It suddenly stops because the innutritious skin is not to its taste. We ourselves remove the parchment-like skins from a mess of pease-pudding, as from a culinary point of view they are so much waste matter. The larva of the Bruchus, like ourselves, dislikes the skin of the pea. It stops short at the horny covering, simply because it is checked by an uneatable substance. From this aversion a little miracle arises; but the insect has no sense of logic; it is passively obedient to the superior logic of facts. It obeys its instinct, as unconscious of its act as is a crystal when it assembles, in exquisite order, its battalions of atoms.
Sooner or later during the month of August we see a shadowy circle form on each inhabited pea; but only one on each seed. These circles of shadow mark the doors of exit. Most of them open in September. The lid, as though cut out with a punch, detaches itself cleanly and falls to the ground, leaving the orifice free. The Bruchus emerges, freshly clad, in its final form.
The weather is delightful. Flowers are abundant, awakened by the summer showers; and the weevils visit them in the lovely autumn weather. Then, when the cold sets in, they take up their winter quarters in any suitable retreat. Others, still numerous, are less hasty in quitting the native seed. They remain within during the whole winter, sheltered behind the trap-door, which they take care not to touch. The door of the cell will not open on its hinges, or, to be exact, will not yield along the line of least resistance, until the warm days return. Then the late arrivals will leave their shelter and rejoin the more impatient, and both will be ready for work when the pea-vines are in flower.
To take a general view of the instincts in their inexhaustible variety is, for the observer, the great attraction of the entomological world, for nowhere do we gain a clearer sight of the wonderful way in which the processes of life are ordered. Thus regarded, entomology is not, I know, to the taste of everybody; the simple creature absorbed in the doings and habits of insects is held in low esteem. To the terrible utilitarian, a bushel of peas preserved from the weevil is of more importance than a volume of observations which bring no immediate profit.
Yet who has told you, O man of little faith, that what is useless to-day will not be useful to-morrow? If we learn the customs of insects or animals, we shall understand better how to protect our goods. Do not despise disinterested knowledge, or you may rue the day. It is by the accumulation of ideas, whether immediately applicable or otherwise, that humanity has done, and will continue to do, better to-day than yesterday, and better to-morrow than to-day. If we live on peas and beans, which we dispute with the weevil, we also live by knowledge, that mighty kneading-trough in which the bread of progress is mixed and leavened. Knowledge is well worth a few beans.
Among other things, knowledge tells us: "The seedsman need not go to the expense of waging war upon the weevil. When the peas arrive in the granary, the harm is already done; it is irreparable, but not transmissible. The untouched peas have nothing to fear from the neighborhood of those which have been attacked, however long the mixture is left. From the latter the weevils will issue when their time has come; they will fly away from the storehouse if escape is possible; if not, they will perish without in any way attacking the sound peas. No eggs, no new generation will ever be seen upon or within the dried peas in the storehouse; there the adult weevil can work no further mischief."
The Bruchus is not a sedentary inhabitant of granaries: it requires the open air, the sun, the liberty of the fields. Frugal in everything, it absolutely disdains the hard tissues of the vegetable; its tiny mouth is content with a few honeyed mouthfuls, enjoyed upon the flowers. The larvae, on the other hand, require the tender tissues of the green pea growing in the pod. For these reasons the granary knows no final multiplication on the part of the despoiler.
The origin of the evil is in the kitchen-garden. It is there that we ought to keep a watch on the misdeeds of the Bruchus, were it not for the fact that we are nearly always weaponless when it comes to fighting an insect. Indestructible by reason of its numbers, its small size, and its cunning, the little creature laughs at the anger of man. The gardener curses it, but the weevil is not disturbed; it imperturbably continues its trade of levying tribute. Happily we have assistants more patient and more clear-sighted than ourselves.
During the first week of August, when the mature Bruchus begins to emerge, I notice a little Chalcidian, the protector of our peas. In my rearing-cages it issues under my eyes in abundance from the peas infested by the grub of the weevil. The female has a reddish head and thorax; the abdomen is black, with a long augur-like oviscapt. The male, a little smaller, is black. Both sexes have reddish claws and thread-like antennae.
In order to escape from the pea, the slayer of the weevil makes an opening in the centre of the circular trap-door which the grub of the weevil prepared in view of its future deliverance. The slain has prepared the way for the slayer. After this detail the rest may be divined.
When the preliminaries to the metamorphosis are completed, when the passage of escape is bored and furnished with its lid of superficial membrane, the female Chalcidian arrives in a busy mood. She inspects the peas, still on the vine, and enclosed in their pods; she auscultates them with her antennae; she discovers, hidden under the general envelope, the weak points in the epidermic covering of the peas. Then, applying her oviscapt, she thrusts it through the side of the pod and perforates the circular trap-door. However far withdrawn into the centre of the pea, the Bruchus, whether larvae or nymph, is reached by the long oviduct. It receives an egg in its tender flesh, and the thing is done. Without possibility of defence, since it is by now a somnolent grub or a helpless pupa, the embryo weevil is eaten until nothing but skin remains. What a pity that we cannot at will assist the multiplication of this eager exterminator! Alas! our assistants have got us in a vicious circle, for if we wished to obtain the help of any great number of Chalcidians we should be obliged in the first place to breed a multiplicity of Bruchidae.