584 TEACHING OF ECONOMIC NATURAL HISTORY. 



in our midst. Efforts of progressive municipalities meet with 

 opposition irom the citizens because they do not realize the neces- 

 sity for combination and active, sustained warfare ag^ainst this 

 wholesale murderer of mankind. Aeain the necessity for teachincj 

 the future citizens of South Africa is stron2;'ly indicated. Teach- 

 ing- them while they are yet amenable to receiving;- and retainin,^ 

 knowledge and actingf upon it when they take up their various 

 occupations in life. If no other form of Economic Natural His- 

 tory were taught to school-children than that in connection with the 

 life history of the House Fly, this one Subject alone would have 

 a far-reaching influence in the furtherence of the health, happi- 

 ness and general prosperity of the people of our country. 



Second to the House Fly, in its ability to do evil to man and 

 his stock, is its cousin, the Blood-sucking Fly, which inoculates 

 men with sleeping sickness, and his animals with a variety of 

 diseases. 



Another familiar pest is the Mosquito, which is responsible 

 for all the mortality and illness caused by malaria. In addition, 

 there is strong reason, amounting almost to certainty, for be- 

 lieving that horse sickness is caused by this insect. Yet, ask any 

 boy or girl in the higher standards of our schools to outline the 

 life-habits of flies and mosquitoes, and, with but few exceptions, 

 profound ignorance would be displayed. 



.When in Graaff-Reinet one day, I called on a senior teacher 

 in a high-class school, who complained of a plague of mosquitoes 

 in her home. I remarked that she was probablv breeding them 

 in her back garden. She indignantly protested that this was not 

 so. I w^andered into the yard, and ten feet from the back door 

 there was an oblong cement sink of large size for the storage of 

 water for the garden. The water in this receptacle was a 

 veritable moving mass of mosquito larvae. I called her attention 

 to these larvae, and S'he innocently wanted to know what those 

 wriggling things had got to do with mosquitoes. 



The Bloo'd-sucking Fly breeds lart^eH^ in the 'Iroppings of 

 game and those of domestic animals. G-'inea fowls and part- 

 ridges break this excrement asunder and fe^d upon the mag-^'ots 

 and chrysalides ; and we in our lack of wisdom shoot these birds 

 for sport. 



Hares are a pest, without anv reHeemine ouality, and yet 

 they are given a large measure of protection imder the game laws. 

 Such is the inconsistency of human nature. 



Migratorv Locusts breed aoace and <'1enurle the country of 

 the native herbage so badly needed for stock, and carry desolation 

 and ruin to farmers and their families. We continue to spend 

 money lavishly in our endeavour to destrov these pests, which 

 liave been devastating the countrv for the past 30 vears. 



The partridge, quail, and guinea fowl feed greedily on locust 

 eggs, as well as the wingless voung and winsred adults. Here 

 we have a natural army of allies eager to fight, gratis, on our ■ 

 behalf. Do we welcome and safeguard them, and encourage 

 their increase? No; only so far as to protect them during their 



