= 6 
lime compounds. It was found to be perfectly impracticable to use air- 
slaked lime, land plaster, or gas ime with good results. Few or no 
larvee were killed by a thorough mixing of the manure with any of 
these three substances. Chlorid of lime, however, was found to be an 
excellent maggot killer. Where 1 pound of chlorid of lime was mixed 
with 8 quarts of horse manure, 90 per cent of the maggots were killed 
in less than twenty-four hours. At the rate of a quarter of a pound of 
chlorid of lime to 8 quarts of manure, however, the substance was 
found not to be sufficiently strong. Chlorid of lime, though cheap in 
Europe, costs at least 384 cents a pound in large quantities in this 
country, so that the frequent treatment of a large manure pile with 
this substance would be out of the question in actual practice. 
Experiments were therefore carried on with kerosene. It was found 
Fig. 8.—Sepsis violacea: Adult with enlarged antenna at right; puparium 
at left. All enlarged (author’s illustration). 
that 8 quarts of fresh horse manure sprayed with 1 pint of kerosene, 
which was afterwards washed down with 1 quart of water, was thor- 
oughly rid of living maggots. Every individual was killed by the 
treatment. This experiment and others of a similar nature on a small 
scale were so satisfactory that it was considered at the close of the 
season that a practical conclusion had been reached, and that it was 
perfectly possible to treat any manure pile economically and in such a 
way as to prevent the breeding of flies. 
Practical work in the summer of 1898, however, demonstrated that 
this was simply another case where an experiment on a small scale 
has failed to develop points which in practical work would vitiate the 
results. 
The stable of the U. 8S. Department of Agriculture, in which about 
twelve horses are kept, is situated about 100 yards behind the main 
building of the Department and about 90 yards from the building in 
