The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-24

with ten female flies to each generation,
the resultant bulk produced by a single
pair starting in at the beginning or the
season would fill 80 million cubic feet
of space, the equivalent of the excava-
lions at Panama for the best month and
a half ever put in by the canal diggers.
Seven different varieties Of flies are
found in dwelling houses, ranging from
the one which rejOiCes in the scientific
name Of MusCa DOmestica to the plain
BluebOttle. Musca DOmestica stands at
the top of the list, as ninety-eight out OF
every hundred flies belong to his fam
lily. 1t is upon him that DR.. Howard
would forever affix the name typhoid
fly" Men read with horror of the raw
ages of the tigers Of India, and OF the
long list Of men and women who fail VIC
Tins TO the cObras deadly bite. They
sympathize with the races Of men who
have not been released from the thrall-
dom Of the mosquito, and yet conserVa-
tive scientists declare that MuSca DOmes-
tica is a more deadly enemy OF mankind
than mosquitoes and lions and tigers and
snakes combined. Yet for generations
he has been allowed to dwell in man s
own house, and when we have screened
him out it has been because he was trou-
blesOme, and not because he was dan
gerous. The microscope was the agency
that revealed his true character.
That cleanliness is next to goodness Was
never better eXemplitied than IN the case
of the flv. He must be born in filth.
to deposit her eggs. she singles out the
next filthiest place she can find. Old
rags form. favorable substitute for the
stable. Waste paper constitutes another
incubator. But it is always necessary
that the eggs be laid I'm filth of some
character 1t is believed by the authori-
ties on the subject that If approximate
cleanliness reigned everywhere, the fly
pest would disappear This IS proved by
experience. In the mountains of Nlr-
ginia there is a little summer resort
around which are built some thirty cot
tages. 1t is deserted village from Sep
TENDER to June, not soul living there
during those months. When the cottage
owners move in in June there is not a
fly to be seen, save the few that follow
the horses of the COttagers up the noun
tain side for two miles. But they never
become numerous until more than six
weeks after the fly season reaches its
height in the Shenandoah valley below.
The first arrivals of the next summer find
no flies there, all those Of the previous
summer having persisted in the cold and
for lack of filth.
The fly nuisance I'm the country is a far
harder one to handle than that in the
cities since the farmer with a dozen
head of horses, thirty or forty cattle,
and sheep and hogs in proportion. can
not have the sanitary conditions surround
ing him that are possible in cities. In
1896 DIT. Howard CO-operated with the
washington health office in seeing that
the stables in the business section OF the
city were kept clean. The result was a
remarkable falling off in the number OF
flies in that section during the sum
mer.
1t is thought that the automobile and
motor wagon will ultimately go far to-
ward solving the fly problem in the cit
les. It is reported that in those neighbor-
hoods where the garage has taken the
place of the livery stable the fly crop
has shown a corresponding decrease.
Ta-r a.Ta.az
to the care and disposition of stable ma
nure which will. if enforced. go far to-
ward eliminating the house fly. Public
sentiment may yet Danish the city horse
stable. as it has already banished the
pig pen. and, with the coming Of the
horseless age IN the cities. flies may dis
appear from the large centers Of pOpu-
latiOn.
Copyright 1893. by Frederic ]. Haskin.)
Tomorrow Signing Tariff Bills