American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-09-11
On the Fly.

twas Hamlet who expressed . prefer.
snce for the:"fly 70 ills we know not Of"
or words to that effect, and Hamlet either
was or pretended to be insane. The -idea
that there is any more annoying torment
possible than the frequent fly affords isan-
unsound notion, a sign of a very thick
skin or q very thick head. But setting
aside for the time the direct discomfort
that the creature works for man, it Is in
teresting, and instructive too, to see the
seriously injurious effect that its indirect
influence seems to have upon the worlds
in<iustry. There are in round numbers
5000 000 COWS, oxen, horses and the like
in this country, which for about ten hours
,o&ay during fiy-time keep their tails in
almost constant motion. 1t is no exag-
geration to estimate that they swing them
n least ten times minute with force
equal ct cech swing to raise one pound
foot That il, their tail-force Is ten foot
pounds . minute. One-horse power IS
1000 ootpounds in q minute, SO 3,3OO
cattle would exert with their tails one
horse power, and all these creatures in the
country would put forth upon the fly the
aggregate force of 10,0O0horse power.
Now the entire force of all the steam
-arRiues and water wheels in the country
I'D Ia the manufacture of steam engines
I'D boilers is less than IL, 000horse power.
AnimaIs In waving tails to keep the fly
away is almost sufficient, if rightly ap-
piled, to make all the motive machinery
in the. land -
It Is an enormous power to throw away
upon so small thing as the fly; but SO it
happens, and until somebody invents
machine for catching and transferring this
of the fly season, Sundays and all, to be
90 wasted. Could the fly be abolished or
trained and the 80 ,O00, 900 tails kept quiet,
&hD theory of the correlation of forces will
show us how vast the saving of food and
consequent relative extension of our past
ure-lands would sbe. Each flourish con-
sunes so much force which must be made
up by food, and 70 stop the flourish would
be to stop that particular demand for food.
What especial good the fly does remains
TO be found out and the utilitarian will
hardly consider the creature worth the
sacrifice of 10, O00horse power of energy
every moment of every two months
Of each. year. 1t is the moralist
H.fher than the ufilitarian TO whom
the insects virtues are revealed. The
bald head il. its fayorits -race-course, and
the lace Of the sleeper is its frequent rest
ing-place. It is perpetually tumbling into
3oods md every ash ineummer teens with
.xhe remains q fhe fallen. In milk, in
lin everything, the dead fly turns up with
the regularity Of meal time. 1t is an I'M
measurable annoyance, and in its vexa-
tons arc the virtues of its being. II is
also . lesson and warning. Every mis-
fortuDeo & the fly, every disagreeable and
DI1yne1eat3 1T it performs comes from
is 1oliy. It was not made to insult the
bald or TO oyerrun the sleepy or to ve1 the
lives of 0O00, 600 cattle. Those should be
\ IL If fu lint
creature is cursed by nature. 1t is born
grown up; all flies are the same size, and
there are no young or old, and being thus
crcs1Dd the thing Is fool ~ has no child
- - Sperispce no rental fnstrucs
G 8dfeHhotlQIpN Wit to d, and so
@ always wrong. 1t is moving monu-
ment Of the need of intelligence; it also
calls for wire-screened windows and netted
Courant.