80 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The stable and milk room were screened. Chloride of lime and ashes 

 were used in the privy. 



The fifth prize, of $60, is awarded " to Mr. Agostino Visocehi, 

 North Sudbury, on a score of 80 points. Here was found a good, 

 clean, well-constructed stable, with cement floors built ou plans of 

 his own. Leather strings were attached to the top of the door frame 

 for the purpose of brushing the flies oif the cows' backs as they 

 entered the stable. There were but few flies in the stable. The 

 windows were fully screened everywhere. Twenty-three fly papers, 

 twenty-eight small fly traps and ten large ones were distributed about 

 the stable. He keeps forty-three cows. The milk room was well 

 screened and clean and also well supplied with fly traps. There 

 were less than a dozen flies in the milk room. The horses are kept 

 in a separate stable. The manure is not treated, but a pit is being 

 made to receive it. No one had taken more pains to exclude flies 

 than this Italian farmer, but he has not yet prevented fly breeding. 



The sixth j)rize, of $50, is awarded to Mr. Jose Pontes, Swansea, 

 on the score of 76 points. He has a wooden barn or cattle stable, 

 which was found well cleaned, and sprayed with lime and salt fre- 

 quently. The cows are sprayed daily with cattle oil. Manure is 

 stored in the barn cellar altogether. No signs of fly breeding. The 

 heap was frequently sprayed with lime ^ and salt and covered with a 

 mixture of cotton and wool waste from neighboring miUs, Spray 

 was made by taking lime and water and putting in a considerable 

 quantity of salt, which was used with a spraying machine as white- 

 wash. No fly traps were used. The milk room was screened. There 

 were but few flies in the stable and none in the milk room. 



The scores of the other contestants were 69, 66, 62, 60, 54, 52, 49, 

 36, 25 and 15. 



It appears from the above report that fly breeding may be 

 to a considerable extent prevented by properly caring for 

 horse manure and the contents of privies,^ in which a large 

 per cent of the flies appearing about farm buildings are bred, 

 by either hauling away each day or applying daily a mixture 

 of acid phosphate and kainite, or covering with dry earth, and 

 also by thoroughly caring for whatever garbage and other ad- 

 vantageous places for breeding there may be about the prem- 

 ises. A proper system of shading, that is, darkening rooms 

 when not in use, as well as proper screening, go a long way 

 towards keeping flies out of the stable and milk room. The 



1 Lime is not advocated in this connection because, in contact with manure, it liberates 

 ammonia, thus causing economic loss. 



2 Privy vaults should be tight and fly proof. 



