VARIOUS HYGIENIC ASPECTS OF AUSTRALIAN LIFE. 497 



lower and richer soil. There we shall clam the creek, dig a water- 

 hole, or sink a well, so that we can irrigate our kitciien garden, and 

 as this water may be required for other purposes we must take 

 care to exclude all sewage. 



Our house should be raised a distance from the ground, and our 

 dormitory erected if possible on a second .story to secure the 

 purest possible air during sleep. Couch and buttalo grasses will 

 cover all the ground around the premises, and so any malaria will 

 be battered down out of harm's way. A wind-mill or other 

 pumping engine will lift the well-water to an elevation, if the 

 tanks catching roof water are not considered ample. Stabling, 

 cow sheds, and piggeries will stand on the slope a tritle above the 

 garden, so that the water from these places may enrich the culti- 

 vation. Tn a long division sum an error in the first line can never 

 be rectified in lower figures, so in our house-building we should 

 guard against the radical error of making refuse fiuid gravitate 

 towards our dwelling. If w-e are not afraid of mosquitos, we can 

 train grape vines to protect the verandahs from the glare of the 

 sun, these will be preferable to passion fruits or other evergi-eens, 

 the leaves of which perpetuate colonies of scale and other parasitic 

 insects. To plant a small vine in such position, seldom leads to 

 success, as the domestic animals break the foliage, so it will be 

 better to have a tall plant of three years growth transferred, the 

 upper shoots of which will be long enough to reach the eaves ; this 

 is not difficult. I have successfully transplanted a vine in the 

 middle of summer, indeed when covered with foliage, by removing 

 the roots cai-efully from the ground by the aid of water, and 

 keeping them continuously wet during their journey to their new 

 resting place. Vine branches can be regularly trained on gal- 

 vanised iron wire, can be pruned and washed in winter, at which 

 time of year their sheltering foliage is not wanted. It is a 

 healthful piece of duty to arrange the fruiting stems and tendrils, 

 and as a reward for the labour we shall secure an unlimited supply 

 of grapes for family use, a little waste water thrown on the I'oots 

 growing among the grass being all the plant asks in return. 

 Foliage about the house no doubt tends to harbour mosquitos 

 where these insects, by insanitary neglect, are allowed to breed, 

 but it is possible to prevent, in a great measure, the genesis of 

 these creatures. Our water tanks around the house should be 

 covered with wire gauze, a precaution much neglected in the 

 supply-tanks indoors in Sydney. Waterholes in the country should 

 be stocked with little fishes, the gold carps can be bred without 

 difficulty, it will eat the wriggling larva. Stagnant swamps should 

 be drained or converted by excavation into fish-ponds. Brisbane 

 formerly swarmed with mosquitos in summer, now it is freer from 

 these insects than any Australian town I have visited ; it has all 

 the natural watercourses paved or cemented, and so the mosiiuitos 

 are kept moving on to their death among the fishes of the river. 



Gl 



