164 THE HORN-PLY. 



double row of peculiar fleshy mobile organs on the last six 

 segments. The larva or maggot is very active and soon 

 reaches its full size, when it contracts in the usual w^ay and 

 becomes a reddish-brown puparium, less than half its former 

 length. The whole life-cycle from egg to fly requires but 

 twelve to fifteen days. 



Tobacco-powder dvisted among the hairs is a fairly good 

 remedy; it will not entirely prevent the fly from settling up- 

 on the animal, but will repel them before they have had 

 time to bite. Other remedies will be given later. The true 

 remedy, however, is to prevent these flies from breeding, and 

 this is not such a very difficult matter as it might seem. The 

 larvae of this fly can exist only in soft, almost liquid manure. 

 All that is necessary to do is to accelerate the drying of this 

 food, a matter not at all diflicult in our tisually dry summers. 

 This ma_v be done by spreading all fresh droppings every 

 day, when the moisture will be absorbed and the food will 

 become too dry for the maggots. Neither would a general 

 distribution of such manure destroy- the value of the same. 

 The liberal application of plaster to the manure removed 

 from the stable, in which eggs were deposited, as well as in 

 the manure-heap, deprives the maggots of food and at the 

 same improves the value of the fertilizer. Cleanliness is as 

 essential in stables as elsewhere, and clean stables do not 

 possess the attraction for such insects that the neglected 

 ones do. To make the remedy of depriving the maggots of 

 appropriate food as effective as possible united and persis- 

 tent action throughout the invaded region is absolutely 

 necessary, and it shotild be put in operation very early in 

 summer, for if postponed until late it will not be of much 

 benefit. 



All flies mentioned thus far, with the exception of the 

 horn-fly, can become exceedingl}' dangerous to man and his 

 servants, the domesticated animals, in another way quite in- 

 dependent from their bites. All are buzzards on a small 

 scale, and remove much of the disease-breeding material apt 

 to be found near the domicile of man. Being scavengers they 

 must necessarily come in contact with dead animals, Avhich 

 may have been killed by a contagious disease, and thus they 



