CLEAN YARDS

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 4007, 8 October 1929, Page 3

CLEAN YARDS

DISPOSAL OF GARBAGE

(Contributed by the Department of

Health)

One of the first essentials of the development of good health is the keeping of a proper kind of home, and an essential feature of such a home is the satisfactory disposal of waste products Iknown as garbage. A ihomqiwith a yard in it has advances. It improves the appearance I the home, affords a place for the children to play, and a gardeu space providing a supply of fresh vegetables and flowers foil' the home. Therefore everyone should take a pride in keeping the yard and surroundings as sanitary possible, for often the dirty hack yard, the unweeded garden, “grownrank and gone to seed” indicates undesirable sanitary conditions within the home. If the busy housewife keeps a home in a clean arid healthy state .it behoves the Ims- • hand to see that the home surroun-, dings are also kept clean'arid orderly, though it may mean an occasional absence from his favourite bowling green, golf course, cricket ground, or tennis court, on some Saturday a'fternoon. The physical effort occasioned by such endeavours will prove very beneficial to him, besides, the pleasure of seeing tangible results of.' hi 8 muscular endeavours is a compensation worthy of the effort. Ordinarily the most common class of nuisance met with in yards is the garbage heap. This garbage health and order and tidiness as it heap may become a real 'menace to begins to ferment and decay. It is generally composed of a large variety of substances, ashes being always a. chief constituent. If wholly composed of ashes it would not be so dangerous; that is, not so great a nuisance, but even then the dispersal of ashes over the premises in question and the neighbouring premises and houses would he no slight inconvenience and annoyance once the heap grows dry and gusty winds prevail. But the heap always contains far more injurious matter. In it are sure to be, found bones and scraps of meat, vegetable peelings, and rotten vegetables, oyster shells, old and filthy rags, pieces of carpet, mats, sweepings from the floor, empty cans, and sometimes manure.

■ • HARMFUL GERMS. All this mess once it gets thoroughly moistened by rain and warmed by the hot sun, develops very •unpleasant and objectionable qualities. It breeds flies by the ten thousand which go everywhere, even to the milk and bread and butter upon the table, carrying along with them upon their bodies and legs minute quantities of this abominable concoction and millions of harmful germs. In properly-con-ducted houses this garbage heap is not present, because not necessary. The most injurious parts of it. wastes from the table, like, meat scraps, bones, vegetable peelings, and so forth should be burned. Another good plan is to place garbage iri covered metallic containers that render the contents inaccessible to dogs and other animals, and do not permit the breeding of flies. It is ! preferable to wrap all garbage in paper before being deposited in the container. This keeps the cans clean and prevents rapid fermentation in summer. Garbage cans, should be thoroughly scoured from time to time. Certain waste products can also he buried in the garden, and thereby be a means of enriching the soil. Accumulating rubbish also creates a fire hazard and is not merely offensive to the aesthetic senses but affords an opportunity in certain localities, for mosquito breeding in tin cans and other discarded receptacles that become tilled with rain water and house the insect larvae and pupae until maturity. Ashes and dust are easily moved by the wind and when blown about irritate eyes, nose, and throat and pre-dispose to bacterial infection.The indirect relations of refuse disposal to the public health are therefore many and the sanitary disposal of waste, more partieula rly* garbage, is important.