The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-07-18

From tie Pr0rtd6RCe (R. H. JOirAGt
AS the season for flies comes on, the drug
stores will put out their papers for destroy
ing these friends of man, and the groceries
will display their various traps for the same
purpose. Brown paper that kills the fly me
chemically, by sticking up his legs and ex-
hausting him in truitless efforts 10 escape;
lead colorcd paper that treachcrously ailures,
intoXicates, and poisons; green wire traps,
! filled with bugging swarms awaiting INNER
sons into tub or holocaust at the kitchen
stove, will tempt the money out of the peck
cts of afflicted housekeepers. All these con
trivances are dull and brutal things. They
are grossly treacherous or wholesale traps Of
no interest at all as pieces OF mechanism.
The genius of nature has ordained that
every species of animal shall be preyed upon
and destroyed by some instructive enemy
But for tie poor fly, or winged insect, she
has provided Il double class of enemies. On
them prey not only innumerable species ot
animals, but also an abundant variety Of veg
etablc growths. lchneumens, toads, birds,
and spiders butcher the gentle little fly for
food, while innumcrablc animals, from mere
angry passions, attack and destroy them
Horses and cows switch them with their
tails; indeed, this seems o be the predispOs
ing cause ofswitchy tails; dogs snap at them !;
men slap at them.
We will not suggest so obnoxious or i'm
practicable scheme of substituting these
animals for chemical and mechanical traps
men have invented. An animate hOrsetall
will hardly do TO brush flies away from the
table, and toads, however innocent In their
MAYNARD habits, are n terror to women and
children. Spiders might be left to spin their
webs were it not for that GOnventionalism OF
the ladies which links a reputation tor neat
ness with the drawing of Il broom periodl-
cally over ceiling and down the angles ot the
room.
But the vegetable world can furnish us
with tly-traps ut once ornamental and etteC
tive, ingenious and capricious. In these
DAYS, when herbariums are affected by house
keepers, why could not window be hlled
with curious and active plant which VIII
work infinite delight for the observer? The
way to do this thing is to secure window
lboX which will hold water In this put
some moses gathered from peat bogs or
marshes, saturatc them well with water, and
plant out the common pitcher-plant and the
sun.dews Of our Atlantic coast The first OF
these plants Is only mechanical trap, Its
pitcher Is filled nearly with water, which the
dies try to drink, when they fall in and drown.
Saurahsts tell us that these leaves are some
! times so filled with drowned flies as 10 farm
ish rich nutriment TO the plant.
The sundews are an ingenious and ANNA
t0d predatory flower. They know us much
as puppy four weeks old. They can't be
,ooied They will ca, animal food, but they
are not like the 81 ly, sensitive plant which
shuts up at every touch. Mrs. Treat tells us
that her sundcws knew the difference between
u piece of meat and piece OF chalk One
they Will shut down upon and the other they
will not touch. This plant spreads out its
leaves, which are covered with little, fine
bristleS. On their edge they eXude delic-
iOus nectar, which the silly little fly is fond
nectar, up comes the spires and iastens HIM
down. Then the leaf curls over him and b.
gins tSdigest him. This is cruel, but ttr
nore comfortable than for the flies TO bic
and digest us.