The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-08-10
CARE OF THE
 BABY IN SUMMER
DESTROY THE FLY


 *'Baby-bye, here's fly" to her in font, she changes the second line Of the old nursery song to read "Let us wat him, you and I.' The common house fly is no longer an object of tolerant interest, but has become an object of hatred and distrust. He is known to be the principal factor in the distribution Of the germs of ty- phoid.
 ! Especially is he regarded as the enemy of the baby, as there is reason to believe that he earriees about the germs of summer diarrhea, and leaves them behind him, with other filth, when he lights on the nipple of the feeding bottle, or scrawls over the saucer of cereal, falls in the milk. Thus he is a real danger, not only to the baby but to the whole family, and every effort should be made to do away with him.
 Flies may be kept out of the house to considerable extent by using screens at the doors and windows, and those that get inside may be trapped, poisoned, or swatted. But better than the flies in the larva1 stage, and thus prevent them from matching The following information is furnished by the Department of Agriculture:
 "A safe and effective weapon against the typhoid or house fly has been found in powdered helIebore by scientists of the Department of Az ricuIture. Flies lay their eggs chiefly in stable manure Powdered he1le- bore mixed with water and sprink1ed over the manure, will destroy the larvae which are matched from the eggs. Since powdered heHebore is readily obtainalbIe, this puts in the hands of everyone a remedy for. one
 of the pests that has been found dangerous as we'll as troublesome.
 T0- I-E11 1J-I,<@ l. kill adult flies, which must be swatted or trapped.
 It has long been known that flies breed in manure butp revious meth ods of destroying the larvae there by the use of strong chemicals have been open to the objection that the treat nent under some conditions 1essened the ferti1izing value of the manure or actually injured vegetation. This is not true of powdered hellebore. Gov ernment experiments have shown that the hellebore is entirely decomposed in the course of the Fermentation of the manure and that even in excessive quantities it does noh arm except to the larvae it is intendeds to destroy. Chickens picking in manure treated with it suffer no i'll effects
 : "One-half pound of powdered helle- bore mixed with 10 gallons of water is sufficient to kill the larvae in eight bushels. or 10 cubic feet, of manure. The mixture should be sprinkled carefully over the pile, especial atten-
 ton being paid to the outer edges. In
 most places YheI1ebore is obtainable in 1 10O~pound lots at a cost of II cents a pound. This makes the cost of the ] treatment a little less than seven tenths of cent per bushel of manure. A liberal estimate of the output Of
 manure Is two bushels a day per horse. The money involved is. there fore, trifing in comparison with the 1 benefits to the individual and the community from the practical elimi-
 nation of the disease-spreadin fly. Although fresh manure is the fla vorife breeding spot, flies lay their eggs in other places as well, such as outhouses, refuse piles, etc. In these places, from which no manure is 1 taken to spread on the fields, consid-
 erable saving may be effected through 1 the substitution of borax for powder
 ed helIebore. Applied at the rate of 0.62 pounds per eight bushels of ma nure, borax is as effective as powdered hellebore in killing the larvae, but costs less than half a cent for each
 bushe1 of manure treated In larger quantities, however, or when the ma
 nure itself is spread at a greater rate
 than IS tons to the acre, some dam tage to crops may result Large quan- l titles of manure are often used by l market gardeners and others, and ! Ih0T0 IS dIWGyS odLSSI OA CiSSoAAOS-
 in applying the borax. The use of the more expensive but safer heflebore
 is therefore recommended for the treatment of manure. Borax is rec ommended for all other refuse in
 which flies may lay eggs
 "Scientists who have been working
 for years to eliminate the fly are con- vinced that the use of one or the 1 other of these simple measures is a I public duty wherever manure and re- fuse exist. 'Sanitarians, however, i strongly advise the removal of refuse | heaps or other unnecessary rubbish | or breeding places for flies. In breed ling places which cannot be thus dis posed of-such as manure or stables I-the daily use of powdered hel1ebore will keep the flies from breeding in
 these favorite breeding grounds The Ebest results are obtainable in a, com l rnunity where everyone cleans up his Epremises, traps or kills the flies, and systematically treats the manure and other breeding places with powdered | heIIebore. E
 4.The fly is not only a. nuisance to 1 human beings and live stock; if sperads disease and filth and is a l menace to public health which cannot be tolerated in the face of a demon strated remedy. Details of the exper- l irnents with other information on the i subject are contained in professional fpaper, Bulletin 245, of the United States Department of Agriculture"
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