18 SEPTEMBER 1875, Page 3

An Irish clergyman, the Rev. George Meares Drought, believes that

he has discovered a remedy against plagues of flies,—and a very simple and pleasant one,—namely, a window-garden of geraniums and calceolarias. He says that he had for a long time been congratulating himself on his exemption from the plague of flies from which his neighbours suffered, when, at length, in preparing for a removal, he sent away his window-box of geraniums and calceolarias to his new residence. Immediately his room was as full of flies as that of any of his neighbours, and so he found out that it was his window-garden which had saved him. That shows very bad taste on the part of the flies, for such a garden is a great ornament to a town-room, when it does not keep out the air too much. But if this be true, the bad taste of the flies is clearly great luck for human beings.