Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1911-09-06
HOUSEHOLD
PREVENTION OR CURE.

What have you been doing during
the past three months to prevent the
members of your family from having
that she finally succeeded in getting
screens on all the doors and on the
few windows that were occasionally
opened. Another says she got the
front porch screened, and that the
family greatly enjoys the pleasant
evenings free from mosquitoes that
the dear old father finds the porch
a much more comfortable place for
his afternoon nap than ever before.
| have found but few, however, who
have gone further than to protect in
small way from the result of filth
ness but few who have tried to pre-
vent the breeding of flies and mosqui-
toes.
In the cities, it has required COM
pulsory law to prevent people from
throwing all kinds of filth, garbage
and refuse in the streets. There will
yet be a law which will compel all
who keep horses, cattle, hogs or other
animals of that nature to provide a
sanitary receptacle where all waste
must be daily collected and disposed
of. Such law would be of ten thou
sand times greater commercial value
and ten thousand times greater health
value than the laws of vaccination
which exist in many states. Septic
tanks for all outhouses, also, would be
a necessary addition to such a law If
every farmer would build a concrete
pit for all manure dropped around or
IN his barns, and place over such pit
f1yproof as we'll as rainproof cover
ings, the increased value of the ferti-
lizer collected would pay the expense
of construction in a single season.
The time is rapidly coming when
fertilizer for our soils will be at
premium. There has so far been
nothing found that equals manure
from the stables in fertilizing value,
and there are few things that cost the
farmer more trouble and annoyance
than fl e.. A cow cannot do her best
when constantly pestered and bitten
by flies. A horse cannot do good
work nor keep in good condition
when tied in a stall or hitched to his
work with swarm of flies constantly
fighting for his life blood. The crop
of flies comes from the manure piles
and other refuse around homes Flies
mean filth. You and your neighbors
can get rid of the flies by getting rid
of the filth. The manure should either
be in the field or covered pit.
During the month of February Of
the present year | visited with mem.
bers of the Home Health club who
had settled upon the Choctowhatchee
peninsula in Florida Only a few
families have been living there for
many years, but now an energetic
town has sprung up and many families
are making homes on the splendid
fertile so.l around there | did not
see more tnan dozen horses and but
few cows on the peninsula, and the
thing which the settlers were most
enthusiastic about was the fact that
there were no flies or mosquitoes.
told them that unless they changed
their methods their immunity would
be short lived, as | had noticed a
great pile of steaming manure back
of the hotel proprietor's barn, and
that all of the outhouses were simply
placed in the most convenient loca-
ton, regardless of sanitation. and no
care whatever taken to cover the
waste and prevent the breeding of
flies. Natural conditions were ideal
to prevent the breeding of either flies
| VI IuOSQultoSS, pu6 GuSS Will swarm
over the place unless active steps
are taken to prevent their access to
their natural breeding places.
The filth accumulates wherever
careless or Indifferent or ignorant
men place their habitations. Go to
work, agitate the question of a fly
free state, fy-free nation. II can
be done, and the expense will be less
than the doctors bills would amount
to for the illness caused by flies in a
single year. Germany is free. SO also
should the United States be free from
the fly pest.-Mirror and Farmer.