214 NA TUBE-STUD Y RE] IE W 



[6:7— Oct., 1910 



intelligent upon those matters of every day concern which are 

 essential to the material well-being of the community which 

 he serves. He must be alert to agricultural affairs, and agri- 

 cultural nature-study will be his starting point. 



ON THE FLY 



The following timely editorial appeared in the Ji^y Ladies 



Home Journal and is here reprinted by peimission of the pub 



lishers: 



A fly's favorite food is what the human being discards and re- 

 volts at: garbage, animal and human excrement, and every form of de- 

 caying matter. Its favorite haunt is in the manure-heap and the garbage 

 pail. It walks over this mess, and with its feet and legs laden with 

 what stick to them it comes into our houses and walks on our food, in 

 our milk and on the tender skin of a baby. It has been estimated that 

 a fly just back from its favorite haunts, at the height of the summer, 

 carries on its feet more dangerous germs than have ever been found 

 in a single drop of the worst city milk. By this very simple means 

 the fly was found last summer in New York City to have been the di- 

 rect cause of thousands of fatal cases of dysentery, cholera infantum 

 and typhoid fever with babies. For a long time it was believed that 

 hot weather was responsible for the deaths of so many infants during 

 summer: we know better. Undoubtedly the heat, and all that goes 

 with it, is disastrous to a good many children, but the fly is now 

 recognized as a far greater and more serious factor, second only, even if 

 it be that, to polluted water or milk. 



The fly can be got rid of. This fact was proved in England, 

 where, fifty years ago, flies were a nuisance and as great a danger as 

 they are now in America. Today, broadly speaking, England is so thor- 

 oughly rid of flies that the English rarely screen their houses. How did 

 the English do it? Just as we must do it: by each family keeping its 

 house clean. Screens will keep flies out of a house and fly-paper will kill 

 them. But neither gets the cause. There is only one way to do away 

 with flies, and that is to keep clean the places where they breed and 

 love to feed. 



Manure-heaps of horses and cattle should be kept in covered pits, 

 bins or fly-proof closets, and stables and pens must be kept clean of ma- 

 nure. 



Outside lavatories should be kept clean and all excrement covered 

 up or drenched with poisons. 



Kitchen refuse should be placed in closed, cleanly kept garbage 

 •cans. 



All decaying matter should be buried or burned. 



All receptacles, such as cuspidors, should be kept clean. 



Until we are clean ourselves we cannot keep healthy, and until 

 we keep our houses clean we cannot keep away the flies. 



If there are flies around or in your house either you or your neigh- 

 bor is careless with regard to absolute cleanliness. And until the flies 

 are got rid of, as they can be with care and watchfulness, a positive 

 danger to your own health and the health of your wife and children 

 ■confronts you. 



