The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1898-03-18
UsEs ION roADs AND nArs.

Clark University IN Worcester Mass.
has been deyotlng a good deal Of time
OF late 10 the introduction OF nature
study In the public schools, aud IN
preparing the subjects 10 be- placed be-
fore The children for investigation be-
has learned some Interesting facts. lie
has found that the common brown bat
can be- domestIcated; that the garden
toad, with proper encouragement, will
keep house free from flies; and that,
II the waters OF a district are kept
well stocked with fish and tadpoles.
the mosquito pest can be reduced to
reasonable limits
Before setting the children at work
DR. Hodge made personal observations
Of the toad In captivity. lie construct
cd a small pen In his garden and In Il
pan Of water Installed male and
female toad. To attract food for
them he placed within the enclosure
bits OF meat and bone. The results
were as satisfactory as they We're ex-
pected. The toads spent most Of the
time sitting within reaching distance
Of the bait, and killing the flies at
tracted by IT, The female laid her
eggs In the water Of the pan, and In
due time the little black tadpoles made
their appearance. There was really
no need of the imprisoning walls 81
wire netting; the prisoners could not
have been hired to escape. The nelgu-
bors were receiving a marked benefit
from the experiment They had never
had so few flies to annoy them. Then
DR.. Hodge established another and
larger colony. Here three or four toads
were to be seen squatting about a sin
gle bone, each swapping up every fly
that came near The fact seemed to
be established that If toads were en-
C0uraged to frequent the gardens
there would be very much less annoy
ance from flies during the dOgdays
Another of DR.. Hodges experiments
was with bats. His attention was
turned to them through the codiing
moth, the insect TO blame for most
wOrm-eaten apples. In an orchard
near his home DR.. Hodge found nine
of the grubs of this insect in a minute.
CHANGING to go into another orchard.
hardly a mile from the first, he found
only four of the grubs in an hours
search. There is an old barn near by
in which I've a colony of between
seventy-fve and a hundred bats. The
owner of the farm informed the doc
tor that his apples were always free
from worms. The naturalist caught Il
bat and offered it to some of the grubs,
which wereg reedily accepted The
Codllng moth flies only at night; the
same is true Of the bat. Putting the
facts together, DR.. Hodge thought
there was a strong case of circum-
stantial evidence that the bat was a
very useful friend of the appla-growef
DR.. Hodge took half & dozen of the
bats home with him and installed
them in his parlor AT first they greet
ed any friendly advances with chat
terlng anger. After little while they
became quite tame, and whenever
their gaOler entered the room they
would fly TO him for food. They never
reached the point of allowing them
selves to be handled, but they were
friendly. Their home was in the folds
at the top of the window draperies
and when night came and sometimes
in the day time, they would spenC
their time flying about the room, re
CARELESS of the presence Of members o
the family. DIR. Hodge would occa
sl0nally feed them with insects in tn
evening, releasing netful after netfu
of the night-fying varieties, and neve
q bug remained in the morning. The,
took everything, from a spider TO +!
poIyphemus moth. One morning tn
doctor counted while one bat deyouret
slxty-eight house flies. He believe
the bat would be almost as susceptible
10 tanning as the monkey.
Observation of fish in his aquarium
has shown DR. Hodge that they ar
the natural enemies of the mosquito
They are fond of the larvae of tn
singing pest. He saw one sunfsh, r.
larger than q silver dollar, swalloy
between sixty-fve and seventy wrle
glers in a single hour And it was ais
demonstrated to him that tadpoles
both of frogs and tOads, are inyeterat
enemies Of the embryo mosquito.