The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-09-21

FLY SCREENS
The average screen door on the
average farm house is not much OF
handicap to a fly. 1t keeps out the
lesser domestic creatures such as
fowls and the dog, and it binders
persons, who wish to pass quickly
but in plain practice it is failure
A screen door properly made and
fitted keeps flies from passing and
Is no bluff. The door casing is built
square and true and the door fits
in perfectly. The casing and the
screen, If oiled and painted do not
swell and shrink with changes of
weather. If not oiled or painted
the screen is tight on damp days
and usually sticks at one corner, so
when it is forcibly opened it suffers
severe twisting.
A screen door is usually braced
by blocks nailed in the corners or
by a diagonal brace or both. Some
homemade doors have the diagonal
brace put in wrong and are useless.
If screen door fits perfectly and
Says an eight of an inch it drags at
the outer corner and does not shut
tight, and then it no longer bars
the flies. Most people form the
habit of slamming door that does
not shut readily, and in the case of
the screen it only twists and wrecks
it. Many screen door has been
slammed and dragged against the
casing until a grove is worn in the
casing to fit it.
Some screens have an adjustable
rod for brace, and can be tighten
ed by turning the oval at the mid
die, but very few owners of such
screens take the trouble to tighten
them.
A screen containing a wooden
brace generally shrinks and dries
and bruises until the brace fails to
hold the door level and square, and
it needs few moments work reset
ting the brace, but not many of
them ever get it.
The reason a screen door says is
that it's weight is always pulling
down at the outer side opposite the
hinges. 1t never says upward, but
always downward. A person open
ing screen door passing out almost
invariably pushes it open and pushes
down and out as it swings. That
says it. A child often hangs on the
screen with part of it's weight while
it swings and that Says it. A per-
son entering a door with load in
one hand, as a bucket of water, US
ually bears down on the door with
one hand and that says screen
door.
After a screen gets sagged, each
person takes time to slam it or hitch
it up little, unless in hurry, and
then it is left ajar so flies can get
in. A fly has a keen sight for open
ings. If there is an opening in the
side of house as large as a lead
pencil fly can find 1t as quickly
as person, and fly invariably goes
in and investigates an opening when
he finds it. When a fly sits on the
outside of an ill-fitting screen door
it is generally because he wants to
be on the outside. The fly that wants
to be on the inside is soon there.
Some screen doors do not fit into
the door casing; they merely shut
against the house at the door and
are larger than the opening intended
to be blocked. A door hung this way
rarely fits well and generally says
severely. When it fails to cover the
hole at the top, a newspaper is fold
ed and cut into Sits and strips and
lacked on the casing at the top, and
acts as an agitator to shoe the flies
away when the door is in motion.
This paper agitator turns yellow in
he sun and becomes a doubtful orn-
nent about the door, At some places
he agitator is allowed to remain in
place all winter and to serve Sec
md or third summer.
Any one who leaves an agitator
n position all winter with it's color It