HODGE I 



FLIES AS A NATURE-STUDY PROBLEM 



81 



see one inside or outside of the house where he lived from August 

 15-23, 1 9 13. In walking round and through the large public 

 market in Cleveland he counted just seven flies. Going direct 

 to Buffalo, the flies were like dust everywhere along the streets. 

 He actually counted 21 flies on his table in the dining room of the 

 Iroquois Hotel. In this respect the filthy condition of Buffalo, 

 as a meeting place for the World's Congress of School Hygiene, 

 was an international disgrace. The Boards of Health of both 

 cities had given the matter much attention, but one had followed 

 a definite plan of killing the early spring breeders, the other had 

 not. Washington, D. C. ought to be the model city of the world 

 and it is sometimes referred to in the papers as "flyless." Condi- 

 tions are much improved over those of three years ago, but the 

 Public Market, according to the writer's observations on July 3, 

 19 1 5, left much to be desired. Flies were swarming over foods 

 of all sorts, absolutely unprotected, and he actually caught about 

 50 flies with one sweep of the hand over a crate of blackberries. 

 This is evidence enough that the campaign work in Washington 

 had not been rightly managed. 



It is plain, too, that the apparatus we use — even to the crack 

 at the bottom of a fly trap — may make the difference between 

 success or failure in a fly campaign. Most fly traps are made 

 altogether too wide open at the bottom. Every hungry fly will 

 squeeze through any kind of a crack to get at attractive food. 

 With no other food about, we may thus attract every fly to our 

 traps. Now if they go in to the bait, and then run out again— 



has caught 37 J 3 quarts of flies. — Fig. 3 



