1859 . 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
945 
Cockroaches good for Poultry—How to 
Catch ’em. 
The cities and villages of most, countries are 
infested with these vermin, which are provoking 
pests to the tidy housekeeper. They are ever on 
the watch for dainty bits in the kitchen and pan¬ 
try, ferreting out the cake, dipping their noses 
into the preserves, occasionally plunging therein 
head foremost, and incontinently running races 
over the cooked meats and pastry. Their odor is 
very offensive, and their fecundity such as to al¬ 
most discourage all attempts to clear them out. 
The Foreman in the printing department of the 
American Agriculturist , who resides in Brooklyn, 
caught some of the “varmints” recently, and 
found that his chickens were exceedingly fond of 
them. He immediately set about contriving an 
apparatus which should not only free the house of 
cockroaches, but also secure to his poultry a sup¬ 
ply of animal food so long as the “hve stock” 
should hold out. As the result of his investiga¬ 
tion, he constructed a very simple and effective 
trap. He generously declines “patenting” the 
trap, and offers it gratuitously to all the world 
and the “ rest of mankind.” It costs next to 
nothing for material, and any one can construct it 
in ten minutes. Our artist has given below a 
partial representation of the trap in operation, 
and we will proceed to describe how to make it. 
First take a common glass tumbler or wide- 
necked bottle, and put an inch or two of water in 
the bottom. Set this near the base-board of the 
room where the animals ‘ most do congregated 
The upper edge of the board is represented by 
the horizontal lines near the top of the engraving. 
Upon the top of this base-board fasten a piece of 
broken glass, with a couple of carpet tacks, so 
that one end of it shall dip down into the glass 
vessel. From a nail in the wall above, suspend 
by a thread a bit of bread touched with molasses, 
or any other convenient bait which will attract 
the cockroaches. Now place a stick or climb- 
in"- board very slightly smeared with molasses, 
reaching from the floor to near the bait, and the 
thing is complete. The insects will march up to 
the bait and step off upon the glas3, when they 
will at once slide down into the vessel. Several 
of our men have put up the traps, and they all 
say it works to perfection, and that the fun of see¬ 
ing the chickens run for their breakfast, amply re¬ 
pays the trouble of the trapping, to say nothing of 
the advantage of clearing out the pests. Cock¬ 
roaches have not migrated so far out as our coun¬ 
try home, but if they ever do we shall get up one 
or more of these traps, and increase our stock of 
poultry. [P. S.—Our ‘Foreman’ says “the 
water is not needed in the tumbler, and drowning 
the insects spoils the fun of seeing the little 
chickens catch them.” Perhaps so, but some 
cockroaches we have ‘read of’ would stand up 
and straddle out of a common tumbler, if they 
could not climb up the sides.] 
[P. S. 2d.—One of the men just tells us that 
he catches twenty to forty cockroaches every 
night with this trap, and he could catch more by 
using a larger sized vessel, but he don’t want to 
stop the fun, and furthermore he wishes,to length¬ 
en out the supply of chicken feed.] 
One of the Ply Traps. 
Flies are a nuisance, though doubtless designed 
to serve a good purpose as scavengers, or other¬ 
wise. Since We have learned to keep them from 
walls and ceilings, by furnishing roosting places 
on asparagus foliage hung about the house, they 
have been less annoying in one respect, but we 
don’t like the idea of an army of them perched 
even on the graceful asparagus branches, ever 
ready to swoop down upon any article of food ex¬ 
posed for a moment. We have therefore been 
always ready to try any new device for extermi¬ 
nating them, and our “ lumber room,” if over¬ 
hauled, would reveal sundry “Yankee Fly-traps,” 
unless “ Biddy ” has used them all up for “ kind- 
lers." This Summer we have found a new ap¬ 
paratus, which is “ scientific ” in its arrange¬ 
ment, rather pretty in form, cheap ($1,50 at re¬ 
tail), and in a few days’ trial has proved some¬ 
what effective. We refer to “ Shaler’s Self-oper¬ 
ating Fly Trap.” Not quite liking the manufac¬ 
turer’s picture of it, we have got up a new en¬ 
graving which we present above. The appar¬ 
atus is represented on a large scale, to show more 
plainly its structure and operation. The actual 
size of our trap is 8£ inches in diameter at the 
bottom, and 9 inches high to the knob at the top. 
The bottom, A, is a cast iron plate, raised in the 
center, with the segment dish, B, for holding the 
bait—milk, or sugar or molasses with a little 
vinegar. Over this is a wire screen, C- open at 
the top, which sets upon brackets, leaving a space 
of about one-third inch under its lower edge, 
through which the flies readily creep in to the 
bait. Over C, is placed an iron pl?.te, D, perfo¬ 
rated at the center, and fitted with a collar having 
a serrated or saw-tooth edge. Over the opening 
is a thin circular plate of transparent mica, and 
over the whole another wire screen, G When 
the upper screen is set on, the mica plate is raised 
half an inch above the serrated opening by three 
points not seen in the engraving. This leaves 
an opening from the lower screen to the uppei 
one, just above E, where a fly may be seen pas¬ 
sing through. The up* 
per apartment is support 
ed by three movable legs. 
All the parts may be 
readily separated from 
each other. The appa¬ 
ratus can stand upon a 
table or shelf, or be hung 
up in a convenient place 
by means of the ring at 
the top. The different 
parts are japanned or 
painted so as to give the 
whole a neat appearance. 
The operation will be 
readily understood by 
noticing the course ot 
the flies in the different 
parts of the picture.— 
They pass in to the bait, 
fill themselves, and crawl 
m fly up against the 
transparent mica, f .— 
Stopped by this they pass 
under its edge into the 
screen, G, but will not re¬ 
turn over the serrated 
edge, during daylight. If 
not destroyed they will 
creep back during the 
night. At sundown, or 
before, if the screen, G> 
is filled, it is loosened 
from the hooks at the sides and lifted up, when 
the mica drops down and closes the lower open¬ 
ing. The flies are then quickly destroyed by 
shaking them over a burning paper, when they 
may be poured out, and fed to the chickens. We 
rather like the apparatus, and admire the ingenu¬ 
ity displayed in its construction. 
Tim Bunker on Raising Girls. 
Mr. Editor. 
Ever since I sent you that account of the “gal 
boss race ” got up by Col. Lawson last Fall, 1 
have been thinking about the way girls are brought 
up in this country. Indeed, I have had consid¬ 
erable many ideas on that subject, ever since out 
Sally was born, and the matter has been brew¬ 
ing, as Mrs. Bunker says of her beer, tor well 
nigh twenty years. Last Winter when I was 
down South, I got some more ideas, and I am 
now so full upon this topic, that I shall boil over, 
unless I dip out a little into your paper. 
I count a well grown, well behaved, and well 
educated woman, as the very blossom of crea¬ 
tion. She was the last made, reserved for the 
last, because best. As there is nothing so good 
and beautiful in the world as a good woman, so 
there is nothing so bad as a spoiled woman. And 
now I am sorry to say, that very many girls are 
utterly spoiled. They are not well balanced ami 
well adapted to the work that woman has to do. 
The most are brought up with such notions, that 
they go through life discontented and unhappy. 
There is Deacon Smith’s daughter Eliza—a 
fair sample of the kind of bringing up I mean. 
They are very good people over there, but they 
seem to forget that children have got to grow up, 
and can’t be playthings forever. They did not 
teach her to do any thing, when she was a little 
girl. She pretended to go to school, but it was 
