Stock Township (part 7 of 9)

Teach Chicks to Roost. - Chicks can be taught to roost by putting the perches near the floor and placing with them two old hens or older chicks1 that are used to roosting. If this is not effective or convenient, place the chicks on the perches after dark for a few nights and they will learn to go there of their own accord. It is often advisable to teach the chicks to roost when eight to twelve weeks of age, as they get dirty and crowd themselves on the floor. If wide roosts - three to four inches - are used there is little danger from crooked breasts.

Toe-mark Chicks. - The successful poultry raiser should know the age of his birds. It is strange to say that 95% of the farmers have no definite way of determining the age of their poultry. When a farmer markets his poultry, he ought to have some positive method of knowing the ages of the birds he is selling. Such a plan would greatly decrease the number of yearling hens and pullets which, through lack of system, are now being disposed of while older birds that ought to be sold are retained. Eggs are conceded to be the greatest source of income from the farm poultry. The pullets and yearling hens will return the farmer a much larger profit in eggs during the year than the older hens. Hens are kept, as a rule, at a good profit until their third year but after that they are seldom profitable. A great amount of money will be saved if more attention is paid to keeping a record on the ages of the chickens.

Several methods of marking poultry are used by different poultry raisers over the country but the most practical one for the farmers is that of toemarking. Instruments for toe-marking are sold by supply houses but an ordinary saddler's punch may be used successfully. The illustration given shows sixteen different combinations of toe-marking. If just one mark is used for all chicks hatched in a given year, no farmer would have to use more than three or four of these marks, but if he desires to show the ages more closely, all the forms might be useful. The chick is toe-marked when hatched. The operation is simple and painless. An entire hatch may be marked in a very short time. All that is required is to punch the web of the foot. (See illustration for combinations.)

Capons And Caponizing

A capon is a castrated male bird. After a bird is caponized it becomes more quiet, the comb and wattles cease to grow, it is more readily fattened and the plumage becomes glossy and heavy. Caponizing is not done to increase the weight so much as to improve the quality of the flesh. It lengthens the period of growth and the flesh' retains that tender, sweet, palatable character so characteristic of spring chickens. The great difference in flavor between the flesh of capons and other fowls is not realized by very many, but in localities where it is known, dressed capons bring from 35 to 50 cents a pound. The larger the bird the more they bring a pound. They -often show great fondness for little chicks and can be utilized to good advantage in rearing broods of chickens. Some people say they make better mothers than hens.

Teaching a Capon to Mother Chicks. - It is no trouble to start a capon with little chicks if he is gentle. For best results have a small yard with a coop in it. The capon should be placed in this yard a few days before the chicks are to be given him so he will get used to it. It is best to have the chicks about a week old if the capon has never raised chicks before. If the coop has no perches in it the bird will roost squatting on the floor. Just about dark the little chicks should be placed under his wings one or two at a time. The capon will not object to this but rather like it If he seems restless tickle

Making A Capon

At the time this picture was taken Helen was only ten years old. This little girl makes spending money by working birds for the neighbors. She gets cents for each capon

"I learned to caponize when I w«i nine years old. although the picture was taken when I was ten. and have eaponlzed successfully for the last s*ven seasons without killing a bird. However, my youngest brother learned to caponize successfully when only seven years old."

him under the chin and talk to him in a soothing voice and all will be well. The next morning the birds should be looked after. The capon will usually be hovering the little fellows, but if he is in doubt, standing on one leg and not clucking much, they should be taken away leaving the capon alone until night when the chicks should be put under him again. By the second night the most obstinate of capons will be ready to fight for the brood. When a capon has once been taught how to brood he can be given a brood of chicks with perfect safety.

When to Caponize. - Fowls can be caponized practically any time in the year. However, it is an advantage to perform the operation in the spring before hot weather comes. They should be from two to three months old and weigh about two pounds, depending upon their development. Caponizing is usually done about the time the cockerels begin to exhibit sexual proclivities, that is about the time they begin to crow. The operation is comparatively painless and safe as but from two to five per cent die from it. Since these die by bleeding in a few minutes, they are still excellent for table use. A good set of tools is necessary and can be purchased for two or three dollars. A complete set of instructions comes with each set so it would be a waste of space to give detailed directions here.

After caponizing, give the bird plenty of soft feed and water to drink. A capon begins eating immediately after being caponized and one would not think that any radical change had taken place in his nature. He should be left to himself as he is his own doctor for the time being. Two or three days after the operation, however, it is well to look the bird over to see if any air has gotten under the skin, causing a slight swelling or "wind puff". If one has formed, it can be relieved by piercing the skin at one side of the swelling with a sharp needle and gently pressing out the air. Feed capons nourishing, not fattening, food, thus keeping them growing. They should be allowed to grow until they are matured, which is generally one year.

Caponizing has not been widely practiced in this country so far but it is steadily gaining in favor. Any man with ordinary intelligence can learn to caponize quickly and efficiently in a short time. More capons appear on the market each year and never fail to bring a very high price.

Capons should be fattened for about three weeks before they are sent to market. Put them in a small yard and feed them two or three times a day. They can be fattened on one of the rations given under "Fattening Poultry," or on the following: equal parts, by weight, of ground oats and corn meal, moistened with milk or water.

Dress capons so they can be distinguished on the market. A good way is to leave the head and hackle feathers, the tail feathers, including those a little way up the back, the feathers on the wings to the second joint, and those on the legs halfway up the thigh. Also leave the head on as the undeveloped comb and wattles make a distinguishing mark.

Systems Of Feeding

There are two systems in common use for the feeding of fowls. One is known as the dry-feed system ; the other the "mash" system. In the former all feed is given dry either whole or crushed while in the latter, one or more of the daily feeds consists of a moistened mash; i. e., the feed is ground. Poultrymen disagree as to the better of these two systems and as to the time at which grain and mash should be fed. Fowls in confinement should be fed three times a day and those having free range twice a day. There are advantages to be gained in the dry system in that it saves time and labor, and lessens the danger of bowel trouble resulting from feeding soured or sloppy mashes.

In the dry-feeding system, a mixture of whole grains is thrown in the litter early in the morning and again about 11:30 or about an hour before they go to roost at night. A dry mash mixture is opened to them about 10 :00 or 12 :30 and they have access to it the remainder of the day. If one cannot feed early in the morning, it is advisable to scatter the grain plentifully in the litter after the birds have gone to roost. This grain will furnish feed for early morning. Fowls should have empty crops in the morning but the crops should never be quite full the rest of the day until roosting time. Keep the birds slightly hungry during the day and do not give them all they will eat until just before roosting time. The birds should be handled once in a while when they are on the perch and if they are either too fleshy or too poor, their rations should be changed accordingly.

Several feeds for dry feeding are given below. The feed given early in the morning and at 11 :30 we call the "grain mixture" and that given at 12:30 the "dry-mash."

Middlings, 1 part by weight. Cornmeal,! part by weight. Linseed meal, 1 part by weight. Gluten, 1 part by weight. Beef scrap, 1 part by weight.

(Winter Ration.) 60 pounds of cornmeal. 60 pounds wheat middlings or shorts. 50 pounds meat scraps. 30 pounds wheat bran. 10 pounds linseed oil meal.

This mash mixture is fed in dry hoppers kept open only in the afternoon. The whole grain feed should be restricted so that they will eat at least onethird ground feed.

In order to keep the above feed properly balanced the 13^ pounds of mash should be consumed in the same time as the 25 pounds of whole grain. Hens are inclined to eat too much of the whole grain and slight the mashes. This must be prevented. The above mixtures are figured out for confined hens and should be varied to meet other conditions.

Corn meal, 6 parts by weight. Middlings, 6 parts by weight. Bran, 3 parts by weight. Beef scrap, 5 parts by weight. Oilmeal, 1 part by weight. Alfalfa meal, 1 part by weight.

Where dry feeding and mash feeding have been compared it has been found that chickens are very fond of broken grain and whole grain moistened and that they will eat such material better than a dry mixture of finely ground feed. The mash is moistened with water or milk. It should be a comparatively dry, crumbly mash, and not a thin slop. For the morning feed, grain scattered in the litter is preferred as this exercises the birds. It should be given as soon as possible after they leave the roost. The moistened mash should be given at noon - all that the chickens will eat in fifteen to twenty minutes - and at night just before roosting time a liberal supply of grain should be scattered in the litter. (Many poultrymen feed the mash in the morning and a few feed the mash at night. It is probably more important that a part of the grain is ground than that it is fed at a particular time of day.) The following sample mashes are given :

Mustard. - Keeps the chickens healthy. Makes the hens lay more eggs. The feeding of mustard is a revelation to poultry keepers. When fed to breeding stock their vigor and stamina are increased, the eggs are highly fertile and they hatch strong chicks. When fed to the other fowls it increases their health and vigor. Mustard is not found to be a stimulant but a mild tonic.

Can be had by Farmer. - Mustard greens can be easily raised in any climate and fed to the chickens with excellent results. Ground mustard is another form in which mustard is fed. In feeding this use about one teaspoonful for six hens.

Mustard Bran. - This is a by-product of the spice mills and if it can be obtained is cheaper than ground mustard. There are two kinds of the bran - brown and yellow. The yellow is considered the best. Mustard bran is fed in the mash, wet or dry. When dry it has no odor. Feed just enough bran to flavor the mash, except in case of hens just over the molt that refuse to lay.

Pullets should be given small doses of mustard about a month before it is time for them to lay and the quantity increased as they approach laying age. At this time begin feeding it to all stock and it will solve the fall and winter egg problems.

Animal and Green Feeds. - Chickens are able to pick up a large amount of insects, worms, and other low forms of animal life during the summer, but in the winter months a substitute must be given them. For this purpose meat scraps, such as offals from butchering, green cut bone, animal meal and beef scraps are excellent. The same is true of green feeds. Chickens must have the animal and green feeds in addition to the dry grain feeds to keep them healthy.

Silage. - The secretary of the Wisconsin Poultry Association advises that silage made from corn is being fed to poultry in that state with splendid results. It is fine to make hens lay. The average run of silage is the best. If there is too much grain in it, the hens become too fat to lay. There is no question but silage is going to be used more largely in feeding poultry.

Hay. - Clover hay makes a fine feed for chickens. Prepare it as follows : Cut it as short lengths as possible (y^ to }/2 inch) and place in a bucket. Pour boiling water over it and allow it to stand two or three hours or over night. When ready to feed, drain off the water and mix the hay with the mash. The hay may make about one-half the bulk of the feed. The exact proportion is immaterial. Any kind of hay is valuable but clover hay is best. Do not give too much bulky feed.

Table Scraps. - In feeding table scraps, salt and acids of one kind or another should be avoided as much as possible. The feeding of large quantities of scraps is not very satisfactory, inasmuch as it has to be fed in a trough, and when given to the birds they generally pick out the pieces and scatter them all about the house in the litter, and it makes a more or less bad method of feeding. They should be fed fairly dry ; that is, they should always be well drained, so there will be no liquid matter in with the scraps.

Birds cannot be kept on table scraps alone. This form of feed is a roughage and should be considered as nothing more than a variety or stimulating feed given along with the regular rations of grain and mash. It acts as an appetizer and is a valuable feed when given fresh. Moldy and sour feeds should be guarded against.

Corn Gluten. - Corn gluten feed makes an excellent addition to the ration and may be procured through almost any feed store. It is highly palatable and may be fed to advantage in the dry mash with other feed, such as follows : One hundred pounds of cornmeal, one hundred pounds of bran, one hundred pounds of white middlings, one hundred pounds of corn gluten feed, one hundred pounds of meat scrap, six pounds of charcoal, six pounds of salt.

Grit. - Grit is essential to economy in feeding and to the health of the fowls. It aids the digestion as it takes the place of teeth and is required for the proper preparation of feed in the gizzard. If the feed is not properly taken care of by this organ, an undue strain is thrown on the fowl's whole system. This often causes disease and allows a great deal of nutriment to pass through the bird's body without being absorbed. A box of grit should be kept in every pen and yard. It gives the fowls strong bones, bright plumage and aids in the assimilation of the food.

Charcoal. - Charcoal is fine for chickens when their stomach is sour and their digestion has been impaired. It acts as a corrective because it has a great absorptive power for gases, impurities, and acids. It is often well to give charcoal to the birds in case they are dumpy before the feed is changed or before medicine is given. Charcoal of excellent quality can be made by burning a pile of corncobs until it is a glowing mass and then dousing it with water.

Varied Ration Important. - In feeding grain one must give a variety. No one kind of grain is best. Variety should be secured by feeding different kinds of grain on different days or by mixing the grain. If grain is made the sole feed, fat instead of eggs is the result.

Feeds Interchangeable. - The following grains may be substituted for each other in the manner indicated below. That is not saying that any one is exactly equal in food value to the one opposite but they do not vary far enough to make a material difference. If one grain is high in price in your locality it will be a saving of money for you to use another and sacrifice the difference in food value in that direction.

To fatten readily, the poultry must be put in a small place where they will have very little space to run about and a place that can be darkened, just enough light being admitted for them to see to walk about when not eating. If they have little exercise they will fatten more readily. The sexes should be separated. Make a small "V" shaped trough, like a hog trough, only smaller, in which to put the wet food. The essentials of fattening are quiet, darkness, except at meal time, and plenty of soft feed given at regular intervals, usually three times a day. Give the birds plenty of water, grit, and charcoal. Keep all green feed from them. Vegetables may be given if necessary to vary the ration. Fowls should be marketed at once when fat as they will lose their appetites when fed too long and begin losing weight. If a bird shows signs of getting off its feed, it should be sent to market immediately or put on the range to recuperate. It takes from ten days to two weeks to fatten poultry. Fowls brought up in confinement are much better for the table than those off the range.

1. Oats, Wheat, Middlings and Cornmeal. - Feed a mixture of ground oats, cracked wheat and wheat middlings, cornmeal, scalded and made into a dough with hot water. Feed as often during the day as the chrckens will eat the feed clean.

2. Cornmeal, Bran and Sour Milk. - Equal parts of cornmeal and bran mixed to a thin batter with buttermilk or sourmilk makes a good fattening ration. Give little first day ; after that give all they can eat in twenty minutes.

3. Buckwheat Flour, Cornmeal and Milk. - Make a mixture of buckwheat flour, cornmeal and milk. Mix these to a batter that will just drop from a spoon but not run. Feed all they will eat. Remove troughs after feeding. Fowls fattened this way are deliciously palatable and tender.

4. Barley, Oats, Corn, Beef Scraps and Buttermilk. - Take equal parts of finely ground barley, finely ground oats (with hulls sifted out), finely ground corn. To this mixture add 10% of beef scraps. Use buttermilk if possible, if not, skim milk for moistening. Feed at regular intervals.

5. Corn, Oats, Flour and Tallow. - A fine ration may be made as follows : 100 pounds ground corn, 100 pounds ground oats, 50 pounds flour and 4 pounds tallow.

If some of the fattening stock does not eat all they should they can be crammed to good advantage as follows: Make the feed into balls about onehalf inch in diameter and two inches long. Have from fourteen to eighteen balls for each bird. Sit down on a box or stool, grasp the bird firmly between the knees, elongate the neck, grasping the head in the left hand, and placing the first finger in the mouth to keep it open. Then dip one of the balls in skim milk or water and force it into the bird's mouth, pressing it down the throat with the finger. Next grip the neck above the ball with the thumb and first finger; run them downward along the neck and force the ball into the crop. It will take fourteen to eighteen to fill the crop of one bird. Cramming is done just before roosting time. One can soon learn to cram the birds easily and readily.

Marketing Poultry And Poultry Products

The average farmer and poultryman can generally figure out that he is making a profit from his chickens, but it cannot be denied that with better methods of preparing fowls for market and better systems of marketing, the profit made from them would be much greater. In the far East where more care is taken in the marketing and in localities farther west where system is used, poultry products bring prices far above the average. Farmers are realizing more and more thai the farm hen who "just eats her head off" can be handled so as to produce a handsome profit. All the loss from poor handling comes out of the farmer. The farmer should study his market conditions and learn how to successfully meet the requirements of his particular market. Where marketing is done to the best advantage, farmers find that it is important to have their products put up in an attractive style. They insist upon selling them on a quality basis. Such farmers study the details of killing, dressing and packing that they may arrange their products in the best manner possible.

Killing. - The birds should not be allowed a bit of food for eighteen to thirty-six hours before killing if they are to be sent off the farm undrawn. If they are to be drawn (i. e., inwards removed), feed should be kept from them at least ten hours before killing. In either case keep all drinking water from them for at least eight hours before killing. If food is left in the crops it quickly ferments and produces an uncanny appearance in the fowls. When ready to kill, suspend the fowls by the legs and lock the wings together to prevent flapping. You can take all sense of feeling from the birds by piercing the brain with a knife run through the roof of the mouth or by hitting the bird a blow on the head. After this is done, the blood vessels in the neck should be cut. To do this, grasp the fowl by the comb or feathers on the back of the head with the left hand ; with the right hand insert the blade of a sharp knife in the neck back of the ear lobe and run the blade through the neck. Give the blade a twist in withdrawing it. This will sever the artery and cause the blood to flow freely. Another way to cut the artery is by running the knife through the mouth into the back part of the throat. The blood should be saved as it makes a fine food for laying hens and young fowls.

Dry Picking. - Most markets prefer dry-picked birds. Dry-picking should be begun immediately after killing, before the bird stops bleeding and the flesh has a chance to become cold. Care must be taken not to tear the skin. Pick up the breast and up the side to tail, unlock the wings and pick them also ; remove the feathers from the back, and finish the job by plucking.. If no time is lost, the feathers will come out easily. A slightly higher price is usually received on the market for dry-picked fowls than for those which are scalded before picking. The work of dry picking is, of course, a little more tedious than after scalding, however, the dry-picked fowl is in better shape for the market.

Scalding. - To scald a bird, it should be immersed in hot water a little below the boiling point as soon as it is through bleeding. The bird should be immersed three or four times. Holding it by the neck and legs, dip the breast and then the back into the water. It is now ready for plucking. Be careful not to over scald, as this will cause the outer surface of the skin to rub off.

Drawing. - If the market demands a drawn fowl, cut a slit about an inch long from near the end of the keel bone, back of the vent and parallel with it, large enough to insert the fingers. Insert the index finger and remove the intestines. To remove the egg sac and lower end of the intestines, it may be necessary to enlarge the slit to a half circle so that it joins the end of the vent. Cut off the head, then draw the skin back about half an inch and cut off that much of the neck bone. Next pull the skin forward and tie.

Shrinkage. - If the intestines are not removed, fowls lose from eight to eleven percent. If the intestines are removed they lose from twenty-five to thirty percent. The shrinkage will not exceed the smaller figures given if they have been well fattened and have been deprived of food at least twelve hours before killing.

Plumping. - To plump a fowl, dip it for about eight or ten seconds into nearly boiling water, then immerse it in cold water and let it remain for fifteen or twenty minutes. If the fowls are to be shipped allow them to become thoroughly dry.

Packing. - Birds should be thoroughly cooled before packing. Pack them neatly and cleanly and in packages that can be easily handled. Any farmer delivering dressed poultry in town can greatly improve the looks of his product by packing each bird in a small pasteboard box, back downward. Proper packing will make a more salable product and should bring a higher price.

2. Keep Eggs in Cool Place. - Keep them in a cool, well-ventilated place. An egg is over seventy percent water and the water evaporates through the shell.

3. Producing Infertile Eggs. - Keep only two or three roosters for the breeding season and kill the rest. Hens lay better without them. You will not be troubled with rotten eggs if you have no roosters in your flocks when not needed.

4. Nests. - Have a nest for every four or five hens. Keep the neste clean and free from vermin. One of the greatest causes of poor eggs is poor nests. Clean nests mean clean eggs.

6. Sell Eggs Every Week. - Sell your eggs every week. Do not give time for the water in them to evaporate. A stale egg is always shrunken. In time it becomes light enough to float.

7. Test Eggs. - Test the eggs before sending them to market. Be sure they are all good. The loss from bad eggs comes out of the farmer's profit in the end.

8. Sort Eggs. - Sort the eggs before sending them to market. Have those of like color together. Use the small or dirty eggs at home. Insist upon selling them on a quality basis.

Proper grading and marketing of eggs is an important subject and one which does not receive the attention it deserves. It is neglected mostly by the smaller egg producer who is not properly posted along this line. He is not informed on market conditions and does not realize the losses which result from the lack of attention to grading.

Fresh Eggs. - An egg to be accepted as a first class, or fresh egg, must be newly laid, clean, of normal size, showing a very small air cell, and must have a strong, smooth shell, of even color and free from cracks. With the exception of the air cell, which is only visible through the aid of the candle, these are the points by which eggs are graded in the early spring, at which time they are quite uniform in quality, thereby making candling unnecessary.

Seconds. - The term "seconds" applies to eggs which have deteriorated to a sufficient extent as to be rejected as firsts. 1'hey are, however, of a high enough quality to be used for human consumption. The several classes of eggs which go to make this grade may be defined as follows :

(a) Heated egg: One in which the embryo has proceeded to a point corresponding to about 18 to 24 hours' normal incubation. In the infertile egg this condition can be recognized by the increased color of the yolk; when held before the candle it will appear heavy and slightly darker than the fertile egg.

(b) Shrunken egg: This class of seconds can be easily distinguished by the size of the air cell. It may occupy from one-fifth to one-third of the space inside the shell. The holding of the eggs for a sufficient length of time to allow a portion of the contents to evaporate, is the main cause of this condition.

(c) Small egg: Any egg that will detract from the appearance of normal eggs on account of its small size, will come under this class although it may be a new laid egg.

(d) Dirty egg : Fresh eggs which have been soiled with earth, droppings, or egg contents, or badly stained by coming in contact with wet straw, hay, etc., are classed as seconds.

(e) Watery egg: Those in which the inner membrane of the air cell is ruptured, allowing the air to escape into the contents of the egg and thereby giving a watery or frothy appearance.

(f) Presence of foreign matter in eggs : Small blood streaks or clots. This condition is found in many fresh laid eggs. Often eggs are laid which show small clots the size of a pea. These are sometimes termed "liver" or "meat" spots.

(g) Badly misshapen eggs : Eggs which are extremely long or very flat, or in which part of the shell's surface is raised in the form of a ring; in other instances a number of hard, wartlike growths appear on the outside of the shell.

Spots. - Eggs in which bacteria or mold growth has developed locally and caused the formation of a lumpy adhesion on the inside of the shell. There are three well recognized classes of mold spots - namely: White, brown and black. In cases where an infertile egg has been subjected to natural heat for a sufficient period of time, the yolk will often settle and become fixed to the membrane. This condition might be termed a "plainspot."

Blood Rings. - Eggs in which the embryo has developed to a sufficient extent so that it is quickly recognized when held before the candle. It has been found that it requires between twenty-four and thirty-six hours of incubation under a setting hen to produce this condition.

(a) Black rot: This is the easiest class of rots to recognize and, consequently, the best known. When the egg is held before the candle the contents have a blackish appearance, and in most cases the air cell is very prominent. The formation of hydrogen-sulphide gas in the egg causes the contents to blacken and gives rise to the characteristic rotten egg smell and sometimes causes the egg to explode.

(b) White rot : These eggs have a characteristic sour smell. The contents become watery, the yolk and white mixed, and the whole egg offensive to both the sight and the smell. It is also known as the "mixed rot."

(c) Spot rot : In this the foreign growth has not contaminated the entire egg, but has remained near the point of entrance. Such eggs are readily picked out with the candle and when broken show lumpy particles adhering to the inside of the shell. These lumps are of various colors and appearances. It is probable that spot rots are caused as much by mold as bacteria, but for practical purposes the distinction is unnecessary.

To all intents and purposes the spot rot, as explained above, is practically the same as the brown and black spots described under the general head of "spots." The spot rot is also placed under the general head of rots, simply because some candlers will call it a spot while others designate it as a spot rot. Pink and blood rots are names which are also applied to certain classes of rotten eggs, the pink rot deriving its name from the peculiar pinkish color of the contents when held before the candle. The same is true of the blood rot, which is bloody or red in appearance.

If the farmer will study the foregoing and then grade his eggs accordingly, he will s.oon obtain better prices and will build a reputation for quality which will soon result in a gain for him financially.

Poultry Raising-Chickens 319

Preserved vs. Fresh Eggs. - Many people desire to preserve eggs for home use when they are getting a great number of them. Preserved eggs are as good for nearly all purposes as fresh eggs if the preservatives are properly made and the eggs are strictly fresh when put into them.

Eggs Should be in Good Condition. - Eggs from hens that have no males running with them will keep longer than eggs that are fertile. It is best to put the eggs into the preservative the day they are gathered, being very careful not to use any with cracked or dirty shells.

Putting Eggs in Preservative. - Care should be taken not to crack the shells when placing them in. They may rest in any position. Eggs that do not remain beneath the surface of the solution should be weighed down. Be sure to have at least two inches of the solution above the eggs. When the eggs are removed for use they should be wiped. Before boiling eggs that have been preserved in a liquid, puncture the shell with a needle to keep them from cracking.

Containers. - Barrels, earthenware vessels, cement tanks and galvanized tin buckets are all suitable for storing eggs. The container should be clean and scalded to make it free from all germs. Keep the vessel containing the eggs in a dark, cool place and do not disturb it any more than necessary.

Water-Glass. - This is one of the best methods for home use. To preserve eggs by this method use one gallon of water-glass (sodium silicate) to nine or ten gallons of water. Boil the water, add the water-glass, and mix the solution thoroughly. Put it in a clean container where the eggs are to be stored and it is ready for use. The vessel need only be half filled as the eggs will make it rise. Before using the eggs stored in water-glass, rinse in warm water and wipe them dry. Water-glass is nonpoisonous and is harmless to both hands and clothes. It acts only on the shell of the egg, making it water and air tight and costs from 60 to 75 cents per gallon. One gallon of water-glass makes enough liquid to preserve from 75 to 100 dozen eggs. The solution should not be used a second time.

Will Keep a Year. - Eggs preserved by this method will keep at least a year in good condition. April, May and June are the best months in which to preserve eggs. Those put down in too hot weather will not come out quite so well as those put down earlier. If eggs are put down in the months named, use those put down in June first, then those in May, and those in April last.

Limewater. - A good limewater preservative can also be made as follows: 6 gallons of water, one quart of salt and 3 quarts of finely slaked lime. After stirring thoroughly allow the solution to stand about three days and pour off the liquid for the preservative. The eggs can be put in the container after the limewater or they may be put in first and the limewater poured over them. Have at least two inches of liquid above the top layer of eggs. Lime preserved eggs can be distinguished by the roughness of the shell.

Bran and Salt. - Packing in bran has been found to be a satisfactory method of preserving eggs in many cases. They may also be preserved for several months by packing them in dry salt. Have at least two inches above the upper layer of eggs in either case.

Selling Direct to the Consumer. - If the farmer produces a high quality of goods, puts them up in attractive style, and carefully works up a large retail trade in a nearby town, he will find this method of disposing of his goods the most profitable because he eliminates the charges of the middlemen. To do this successfully, however, he must study his customers and learn their tastes. In fact, he must be a salesman. The eggs should be carefully graded. Many farmers who have worked up a good retail trade have found it advisable to pack the eggs in paste-board egg boxes, holding one or two dozen as the trade demands. This enables one to easily grade the eggs since he can quickly pick out a dozen alike. This way a customer desiring eggs of a certain color can be supplied. Keep them covered. It is also possible to secure customers in a city within reasonable shipping distance, expressing them a certain amount of eggs at regular intervals (once or twice a week). By furnishing eggs of a superior quality and having them strictly fresh, the farmer can soon secure a substantial increase over prices paid in the open market. Hotels, clubs and restaurants are also good customers to supply.

Selling Direct to Retailer. - In selling direct to the grocery or provision dealer, seek out the one who caters to a select trade. Sell your goods on a quality basis and secure the top price.

Selling to Commission Merchants. - The returns by following this method are usually not as great as the others but it is the simplest and does away with the trouble1 of handling the private trade. In selling to commission merchants, try to deal with those who have developed a trade along a certain line as they can pay the highest prices.

Shipping by Parcel Post. - The parcel post offers a means by which eggs can be snipped direct from the farm to the consumer. It is rather new, but is fast becoming popular. Eggs to be shipped by this method must be of a first class quality and have the best of care. The postal requirements are as follows: Eggs shall be accepted for local delivery when so packed in a basket or other container as to prevent damage to other mail matter. This embraces all collection and delivery service within the jurisdiction of the local office. Eggs shall be accepted for mailing regardless of distance when each egg is wrapped separately and surrounded with excelsior, cotton, or other suitable materials and packed in a strong container made of double-faced corrugated pasteboard, metal, wood or other suitable material and wrapped so that nothing can escape from the package. All such parcels shall be labeled "Eggs." Eggs in parcels weighing more than 20 pounds, shall be accepted for mailing to offices in the first and second zones when packed in crates, boxes, buckets, or other containers having tight bottoms to prevent the escape of anything from the package and so constructed as properly to protect the contents. Such packages to be marked, "Eggs - This side up," and to be transported outside of mail bags. The weight of a single dozen of eggs in a carton properly packed and wrapped for mailing will weigh from 2 to 3 pounds If the eggs are small, the container light, and the package does not weigh over 2 pounds, the postage within the 150 mile limit, or first and second zones, would be 6c; if the package weighed between 2 and 3 pounds it will cost 7c within the first and second zones under normal conditions. Remember that the sender's name and address preceded by the word "From" must be on every package. It is well to know that the larger the package (within the size and weight limits) the cheaper is the postage as the first pound costs 5c within the first and second zones, while each additional pound, up to 50, only costs Ic.

Marketing Through a Creamery. - In some localities marketing through a creamery has been found very profitable. To make the most of this method a high quality of product should be maintained and the eggs stamped so that the consumers, recognizing the merit of the goods, will call for them. A market is sought in a city. Some large grocery store is good. It does not take long to work up a paying business by following this plan, as the quality of the goods calls for high prices.

Co-operative Marketing. - In a few sections of our country the organization of egg circles for the co-operative marketing of eggs has been successfully tried out. In European countries this system has been very successful and we believe it deserves more widespread attention in the U. S. This method is similar to the one of marketing through a creamery. However, instead of the creamery tending to the business, a manager is hired to collect and dispose of the eggs. The manager must have considerable ability since the success or failure of the undertaking rests largely upon him. Usually twenty-five or thirty farmers form one group. They agree to furnish fresh, sorted, strictly guaranteed eggs. In this way they put out an article of high quality and soon raise the standard of their product. With a better article comes a higher price.

There is more money in the poultry business every year for the farmer who markets his poultry products in a systematic way. It will pay him to give more attention to this branch of the business.

Simple System Of Poultry Accounting

Keep track of the poultry. See if the chickens are making money for you. Be square with yourself and with the hens. A system of poultry accounting is one of the greatest needs of most poultry keepers. A poultry raiser should have a definite record of receipts and expenditures.

Simple Plan. - We hereby give you one of the simplest forms possible for keeping track of the poultry flock. By following this simple plan, the raiser can know definitely the standing of his chickens at the end of each year.

Forms Necessary. - The only forms necessary are: Egg record monthly sheet, yearly summary sheet, balance sheet, and inventory sheet. These forms can be ruled off either on loose sheets of paper or in a blank tablet or book. The latter is really the best at it removes the danger of the pages being scattered. When it is used the left hand page can be used for the debits and the page opposite or right hand page for the credits.

Debit or Dr. - On the debit side of the account is put the value of feeds fed to the flock, the value of extra labor (if just the extra labor is put down then the profit at the end of the year, shows the returns for the regular time and labor spent in caring for the flock.), cost of any appliance on anything to be used for flock, etc.

Credit or Cr. - On the credit side is kept the returns on the flock such as money received for eggs, or fowls sold, and the value of things used at home, as birds or eggs eaten. By noticing the examples given and following them, one can soon learn the side on which to enter an account.

Egg Sheet. - This sheet is to keep an account of the number of eggs gathered each day, so as to check up on those used at home and credit the flock with them. If the columns headed "Average number of hens" and "Average egg production" are used it will show if the hens are laying satisfactorily. The "average number of hens" can be determined by keeping track of the deaths each month. The exact number would be as follows: Suppose that in a 31 day month there were 62 hens at the beginning of the month, that 2 died on the 7th and 1 on the 20th. For ihe first 7 days there were 62 hens, for the next 13 days there were 60 hens, and for the last 11 days there were 59. The average number equals:

An approximate "average of hens" close enough for practical purposes may be obtained by taking the average between the number of hens at the be- ginning and the end of the month. Suppose there were 40 hens at the beginning and 36 at the end of the month. To find the average add these two numbers together and divide by 3.

Average Egg Production. - After the "average number of hens" is obtained the "average egg production" is determined by dividing the total number of eggs laid by the "average number of hens."

Yearly Egg Record

Monthly Sheet. - One monthly sheet is used for each month in a year. All chickens and eggs consumed at home should be put on the credit side of the sheet at their regular market value. Eggs used for hatching purposes should be put on both the debit and credit sides at the same price. If the demand for hatching purposes is great enough to take care of all suitable eggs, the price should be the rate obtained for hatching eggs. If only the extra labor re- quired now and then is debited against the flock, the balance at the end of the year represents the payment the chickens have made for the raiser's time. However the raiser's time can be estimated and debited against the flock each month, if desired. The balance sheet at the end of a year, will then show the net profit of the fleck. In the column headed "Equipment" should be charged such purchases as brooders, incubators, etc. Glass, roofing paper, lumber, etc., should be charged under "Miscellaneous." If day-old chicks are sold they should be credited under "Breeding Stock."

Monthly Summary Sheet

Balance Sheet. - On this sheet are entered the year's expenditures and receipts which are the totals of the "yearly summary sheet." Also the totals of the invoice sheets are entered, etc., as can be easily understood by sample.

Inventory Sheet. - This sheet is used at the beginning of each year to take a complete inventory of the value of the equipment, feed, stock, etc. Each item should be listed at its value the time the inventory is taken. If buildings are well constructed allow about 5 percent deterioration for each year they have been built. The deterioration on incubators that have received good care is about 10 percent. The inventory does not necessarily need to be taken on January 1st; October 1st or November 1st will do just as well.

Treatment For Diseases Of Chickens

As a means of profit, poultry raising can be made successful only by maintaining the most vigorous campaign against disease. The best way to carry on this campaign is by preventive measures. Too few people ever think of disease until it makes its appearance, and to ignorance, carelessness and lack of forethought in this respect, is due, to a large extent, the prevalence of poultry diseases.

Fowls are often affected by a number of diseases which spread rapidly through the flock and kill a large part of the birds. They are also infested by different kinds of parasites which live in the crop, intestines, or stomach of the bird and on the surface of the body. These parasites are injurious as they take a part of the nourishment which should be used by the fowl to produce eggs or to put on flesh, and also because their biting and their movements cause irritation to the parts which they attack.

Important Conditions to Consider. - The most important conditions which the poultryman has to consider in an endeavor to keep his fowls in a healthy condition, are the larger parasites to which reference has just been made which causes weakness and loss of flesh and the contagious diseases, which are caused by vegetable and animal germs. These parasites and germs should be kept out of the flock by preventive measures. Disease can be prevented much more easily and with far less expense than it can be cured. A person should therefore study diseases not so much with the idea of knowing how to cure them as knowing how to prevent them.

Many times medicines can be advantageously applied or given to fowls, however, as a rule, if the patient is not a very valuable bird, it is better to kill it because the time and work required for treatment is worth more than the bird. Again a sick bird may be affected with some contagious disease which may spread through the entire flock before it is recognized. Another reason for killing sick birds is that they are more susceptible to disease than the other birds of the. flock, so they should be culled out in order to establish a strong flock, capable of resisting disease.

Breed for Health. - "Like produces like." Do not expect birds with weak constitutions to produce healthy chicks. Breed from the best stock you have. Breed for health. Health gives one a solid bed-rock foundation upon which to build a strain well fitted to develop all the other desirable qualities. The tendencies to certain weaknesses are readily transmitted from parent to offspring. When these tendencies are handed down from generation to generation they become more firmly fixed. The strong, vigorous birds should be mated and the weak strains eliminated.

Indications of Health. - Use the birds with bright eyes; bright, smooth, well-kept plumage ; red comb ; those that are alert, active, and have a keen appetite. Examine the body to see that it is free from defects and deformities, especially the legs. The legs should be bright, clean, clear, and well formed.

Legs Show Condition. - The legs of a fowl indicate its condition as much as the pulse of a person. If the veins on the legs are prominent, if the legs feel dry and hot to the touch, especially if this condition is accompanied by a hot breath and dry mouth, separate the bird from the others until you find out what is wrong.

Do Not Breed "Cured" Fowls. - Birds that have been sick are dangerous as breeders. They are necessarily the weak ones, besides there is always the danger of their not being entirely cured. Some taint often remains which may transmit a predisposition to disease to the offspring.

Feeding to Prevent Disease. - Be sure that the chickens receive the kinds of feed and the right amounts to supply their needs. In winter they must be given the feeds that take the place of what they pick up on the range during the summer months. Even in summer they do not always get all they need. This must be supplied them if necessary.

Housing to Prevent Disease. - See that the fowls have plenty of fresh air but avoid drafts and damp coops. Do not allow the birds out when there is snow on the ground. Colds lead to other troubles and result in loss to the owner. Besides fresh air the fowls also need sunlight in order to be healthy. If possible, the coop should be so situated that during the day, sunlight penetrates to all parts of it. Fresh air and sunlight are purifiers and natural disinfectants. This applies to all poultry buildings. Many brooder houses which seem to be veritable death traps and which have proven unsatisfactory, will work well if they are changed so as to let in the sun whenever possible. Of course the chicks should be able to get in the shade when they choose. Feeding and housing play a large part in keeping the birds healthy and vigorous. Give them a home.

Cleanliness in Preventing Disease. - If everything about the place were kept clean, there would be little trouble from diseases in poultry. Keep clean litter on the floor of the poultry buildings and clean the coop thoroughly at least once a week. Have a dropping board to catch the manure at night. This should be cleaned at least twice a week in summer. Scald out the drinking basins to keep them free from germs and clean the hoppers. Do not keep poultry on the same ground season after season. The ground becomes infected and harbors insects and disease germs. Old ground should be treated to kill these germs by applying a good coating of freshly slaked lime to the entire surface and then plowing a few days afterwards. It may then be cultivated 3 or 4 times with intervals of a week and then sowing it finally to rye, oats or other grain. The greater part of the germs will be destroyed in a few months, however, if possible the ground should be left unoccupied by fowls through the winter, as the freezing and thawing is more effective in killing the germs than continued warm or cold weather. Keep the coop disinfected and whitewashed. Whitewash once a year at least. In the spring or fall is a good time.

Start Chicks Right. - Be sure that the chicks are not infested with germs at the start. If a hen is used to hatch the eggs, she should be free from lice and mites. Keep her dusted with a good insect powder. Be sure the nest is free from vermin. Avoid putting eggs to be hatched in any packing such as oats, chaff, or cut straw which may be musty or moldy ; wipe the eggs with a cloth wet in a solution of 70 per cent, to 80 per cent, alcohol. If an incubator is used have it thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. The young chicks should be free from parasites and injurious germs of all kinds. To keep them in this condition put them in clean, disinfected brooders, and allow them to run only upon that ground which has been free from poultry for several years. If this cannot be done, disinfect the soil as mentioned above.

By beginning this way, a flock can be had practically free from parasites and disease germs, but to keep them in this condition frequently clean and disinfect the premises. There are several reasons for this. First, the germs of contagious diseases may be brought to the place by pigeons or other birds which fly from one poultry yard to another, or by rats or mice ; second, certain germs are generally present in the intestines of healthy birds and are scattered with the manure, which, if permitted to accumulate and become verv numerous may cause outbreaks of disease ; third, grounds for the poultry are seldom entirely free from infection with the eggs of parasitic worms and the spores of disease-producing microbes. To keep these parasites and germs from 'developing and increasing their numbers, the feed troughs and drinking fountains should be washed every day or two with boiling water or other disinfectant and the brooders and runways thoroughly disinfected. One should study diseases to know how to prevent them. Eliminate the cause of the disease and the disease itself will soon disappear.

Simple Remedies

Following is a list of simple remedies and a few articles which the progressive poultryman should include in his medicine chest. A small glass, graduated into ounces for measuring liquids ; a glass tumbler in which to mix remedies - a teaspoon ; small pair of tweezers ; medicine dropper, small oil can with which to apply roup or cold cures by direct application when several birds are affectedsharp pen knife. All powders should be removed from the packages placed in small, air-tight cans and neatly labeled.

* A 1 percent solution - (approximately) 1^ teaspoonfuls to 1 pint water. This is accurate enough for practical purposes. By figuring from this any of the dilutions wanted can be easily prepared.

This disease is usually caused by the rupture of a blood vessel brought about by too high feeding, sudden fright, violent exertion or straining in laying eggs. Birds are sometimes found dead in the nest.

If the bird is still alive, pierce a vein underneath the wing causing the blood to run freely and reducing the blood pressure on the brain. In this way one will usually produce a cure.

This is a disease which exists more often than is expected. It attacks the respiratory or digestive organs of fowls. In adults, the disease may be mistaken for tuberculosis and in chicks for white diarrhea. Aspergillosis of chickens is dealt with under brooder pneumonia.

A fungoid growth in the wind pipe and bronchial tubes, sometimes extending to the lungs and liver. Infection may be due to musty hay, straw or grain.

Preventive Treatment. - This is a most difficult disease to cure. It can be prevented by feeding no musty grain and giving only clean, bright chaff or straw to scratch in.

Sometimes affected fowls may be saved by applying flowers of sulphur or tincture of iodine to the patches seen in the mouth and throat and causing the birds to inhale the vapor of tar water or turpentine. Tar water is obtained by adding two tablespoonfuls of wood tar to a quart of warm water and letting the mixture stand a few hours. Then the birds are taken into a closed room where the tar water is poured, a small quantity at a time on a hot brick or stone until the atmosphere is charged with the vapor.

Symptoms. - The symptoms are very similar to those described in white diarrhea and the disease may be easily mistaken for the same. However, the breathing is more rapid and difficult and is sometimes accompanied by sounds due to obstruction of the air tubes. The white diarrhea is usually present in the lung disease as well as in the intestinal infection.

Treatment. - The sick chicks can seldom be cured and so all efforts should be directed toward prevention. The measures mentioned for the prevention of white diarrhea are applicable to brooder pneumonia. It is probable this disease is generally caused by failure to maintain proper cleanliness and ventilation. Care should be taken to disinfect the incubator and brooder thoroughly in which the chicks are to be hatched and reared.

Bumblefoot is caused by some bruise or injury such as jumping from a high roost upon some hard substance or by stepping on bits of glass or splinter.

Symptoms. - Inflamed condition of the bottom of the foot. Usually pus forms under the skin in the form of an abscess. As the pressure is increased, there is a tendency of the pus to work out into other parts of the foot and leg. The fowl limps and is inclined to stand on one foot.

Treatment. - Keep the fowl in a clean, dry place and do not allow much exercise until the wound heals. It is best to bandage the foot and dress with fresh vaseline each day. Wash in strong vinegar or paint with iodine. If pus has formed, drain it and wash thoroughly with peroxide of hydrogen. After this apply 30 parts vaseline and one part iodoform.

Ill smelling quarters and feeding unclean and diseased foods produce canker in fowls. Musty or "rotten" grain is also apt to induce the trouble.

Treatment. - Cleanse the sores with one-third peroxide to two thirds water three times daily. Then apply lard mixed with sulphur. Mix up a light solution of permanganate of potash and add to the drinking water, giving them no other water to drink.

Symptoms. - It can be detected by a whistling sound in the breast. The bird acts stupid and may gasp for breath. In bad cases breathing is difficult.

Aconite. - Give twenty drops of tincture of aconite in a quart of drinking water. In mild cases this will be found sufficient provided the sanitary conditions are as they should be. Flaxseed tea is also recommended. If taken in time, 10 drops of turpentine in a teaspoonful of castor oil will relieve. Give one teaspoonful of glycerine in which four drops of vinegar has been dissolved. Repeat each night for a week. Mix equal parts of vinegar and water. Give one teaspoonful two or three times a day.

amination are found to be filled with gas and foul smelling fluid but very little food. The bird becomes sluggish, the feathers rough and the comb dull in color.

Treatment. - Empty the crop by holding the head downward and carefully pressing the contents out through the mouth. Giving one-tenth grain tablet of bichloride of mercury dissolved in one quart of drinking water. Weed soft, easily digested food.

Enlargement or swelling of the food passage near the gizzard. It is seldom met with except in connection with catarrh or inflammation of the crop. It may be caused by overfeeding, eating decomposed food or other poisonous matter.

Treatment. - Do not feed irritating food. Omit from mash all bran and mix with clover tea. Add one-tenth of a grain of arsenite of copper to each pint of drinking water.

Apply a solution of boric acid to the affected parts. Some prefer carbolated oil to watery solutions. If there is inflammation of the eyes, the boric acid solution may be used as a wash.

For the eruption there is nothing better than common vaseline. Feed a mash of one-third clover mixed with boiling milk. Avoid exposure to cold and wet.

Cholera of poultry is a virulent, usually fatal, contagious disease. Many simple ailments of poultry are accompanied by diarrhea, but the poultrymen should bear in mind that a troublesome diarrhea is not always cholera.

Cholera is caused by infection, brought on usually by food or drink which has been infected by the discharges of diseased fowls. The germs often gain entrance to the body by inhaling the dust in coops which have not been properly disinfected or by eating the flesh of fowls which have died of the disease.

Symptoms. - Loss of appetite, great thirst and high temperature. If a fever thermometer is placed next to the flesh under the wing, it will often register 110 degrees. The crop is usually distended with food which cannot pass owing to the paralysis of that organ. Sleepiness which may last until death. A rapidly fatal disease, always accompanied by copious, yellowish or deep blue green diarrhea. Infection of a large number of birds in one flock. Caution : A combination of indigestion and lice produce symptoms which are very much like those of cholera. Nine-tenths of the reported cases of cholera are not that disease at all. Get rid of the vermin, supply charcoal, grit, feed less corn and you have the best cholera remedy there is.

Treatment. - If sure your chickens have cholera, the treatment should mainly be preventive. Observe cleanliness in every way. Do not use eggs for hatching unless you know they are from healthy stock. Isolate all suspected cases as soon as found. Give these birds a few drops of creolin in their drinking water, just enough to turn it slightly milky - or give them drinking water in which has been dissolved one-tenth of a grain tablet of corrosive sublimate to a quart of water. If they develop marked symptoms of cholera, they had better be killed and cremated at once. Kill by strangulation or the blow of a club. If blood is drawn it will be a means of infection for other fowls. Spray the building with a 5 percent solution of carbolic acid and then whitewash it.

A good home remedy in any case of diarrhea and often in mild cases of cholera, is to drop twenty to thirty drops of spirits of camphor on sugar and dissolve the whole in a pint of water; allow no other drink. As a diet give them stale bread soaked in scalded milk and well seasoned with pepper.

A Prescription. - In use for twenty years and found to be one of the most successful remedies ever tried : Carbonate of iron, 8 ounces ; pulverized golden seal, 1 ounce; pulverized rhubarb, 3 ounces; pulverized capsicum, 3 ounces; flowers of sulphur, 8 ounces ; pulverized charcoal, 4 ounces. Mix thoroughly together. Keep in air-tight can. For chicken cholera make a pill of this remedy the size of a small pea and force the sick bird to swallow by forcing the mouth open and dropping into the throat. As a preventive, put 1 teaspoonful in feed enough for twelve hens. Use this three times a week. It will also increase egg production fifty percent.

This disease germ does not usually affect adult fowls seriously but causes severe loss in chicks and turkeys. In chicks it is known as brooder pneumonia and in turkeys as blackhead.

The same germ causes this disease that produces blackhead in turkeys. Pigeons are particularly susceptible to it and are often responsible for the outbreak in poultry yards as it is spread by contagion. The germ (coccida) multiply very rapidly in the intestines of the diseased fowls and are discharged with the droppings and carried on the feet to the drinking and feed troughs unless they are well protected.

Symptoms. - When adult fowls are attacked, the symptoms are stupidness, laziness and sometimes diarrhea. The fowl loses weight although the appetite is retained for a time.

Treatment. - Put three grains of copperas to one quart of water, or fifteen grains of catechu to one gallon water and give the birds to drink. This has been a very successful remedy. They should also be given a dose of calomel (three-fourths to one grain) or two to three teaspoonfuls of castor oil occasionally.

Give doses of castor oil containing 5 to 10 drops of turpentine with each dose. Disinfect the premises thoroughly with a 10 percent solution of cresol. Burn the bodies of all birds that die.

Crop bound is caused by food swelling and forming a hard mass in the crop. Fowls deprived of the necessary vegetable diet often eat the litter, bringing on this condition. The absence of grit in the food has the same result. Sometimes a quantity of green leaves or grass is eaten by the fowl and becomes packed in the crop, making the passage of food impossible.

Treatment. - In some cases an operation is necessary. However, the following treatment is recommended: Sweet oil, olive oil, or fresh melted lard should be poured down the throat; from one-fourth to one-half ounce of any one of above remedies. With the hand, work the contents of the crop so as to break up the hard mass. Then give the bird warm water to drink and soft, easily digested food for a few days.

Give a teaspoonful of castor oil. Change diet if food is suspected. Often no treatment is necessary but it is not wise to neglect a mild case for fear of the development of "Severe Diarrhea or Epidemic."

In diphtheria we find some of the symptoms of roup or contagious. catarrh, but it differs from these by raised patches of whitish or yellow skin which invades the throat and mouth, and sometimes appears like sores or ulcers on the face, comb, nostrils and eyes.

Diphtheria of fowls is strictly contagious and probably never develops as the result of cold or dampness. The contagion is spread through mucus which escapes from the nostrils or that which is forced out by sneezing or coughing. When the disease is present, the feeding troughs, drinking pans, etc., are quickly infected and thus the disease is conveyed to the well birds.

Symptoms. - The symptoms first show themselves by irritation or inflammation of the surface of the throat, mouth, nostrils or eyes, sometimes ex- tending from the air tubes to the lungs or from the gullet to the crop. The poison which is produced by the growth of the microbe beneath the false membranes is absorbed and affects the nervous system causing depression and sleepiness. At this time, which may be three to five days from the appearance of the first symptoms, the condition is very serious. The breathing is so obstructed that hardly sufficient air can be inhaled to support 'life. The head is swollen, there is considerable fever and an exhausting diarrhea sets in. There is loss of weight and death soon follows.

Treatment. - The treatment of diphtheria requires much time and patience and unless the fowl is valuable, does not pay. It is better to kill and burn those affected, disinfect the houses and in that way stop the contagion as soon as possible, even if the whole flock must go. If the birds are to be treated, remove them from the flock. Make a swab of cotton tied on a stick and swab the mouth with hydrogen peroxide. Remove any of the growths that come away easily.

A solution which gives good results is 35 grains of chlorate of potash, two grains of salicylic acid in one ounce of water and 1 ounce of glycerine. This to be applied to the spots three or four times daily.

A solution consisting of one and one-half ounces boric acid and one ounce of powdered borax dissolved in one quart of water and applied warm, is good. The two last mentioned solutions may be used as an eye wash or injected in the nostrils. Disinfect the rooms where the sick birds stay daily with a 5 percent solution of cresol or carbolic acid.

The liver is affected by several diseases. The most common are connected with digestive disorders. Others are due to a specific disease such as tuberculosis or coccidiosis.

The diseases which are due to indigestion are congestion, inflammation, fatty or enlarged liver and atrophy of the liver. While there is a distinct difference in these diseases, the methods of treatment are very much the same.

Symptoms. - The first symptoms are a watery diarrhea. The affected birds show no appetite and lack ambition to move around. Later there is an increased desire for water and the fowls lose weight rapidly.

Treatment. - The return to rational food is the first step. Give more green food. Make the mash as largely to cut clover as the birds will eat. Drop out some of the flour and corn meal. Encourage exercise. Give as scratching material waste from hay mows. If it is warm weather, give the birds access to a clean grass run.

It may be due to a sluggish condition of the circulation. Overfeeding with little exercise tends to bring on this disease. Dropsy is frequently the manifestation of some other disease.

Treatment. - Unless the disease is caused by some organic trouble, plain food, green vegetables and a dose or two of castor oil will probably cure it. As the legs reduce in size, give more exercise to stimulate the functions of the whole body. A solution of one teaspoonful of nux vomica to two quarts of drinking water is valuable as a tonic. If the fowl has some other organic trouble, it is best and most merciful to kill it.

Some bacterial or other specific infection of the intestines. It may originate from a filthy condition of the poultry yards, foul floor, filthy water or decomposed food.

Treatment. - First place the yards in a sanitary condition. Isolate the sick fowls. Give 6 to 8 drops of chlorodyne on a small piece of bread. The food should be non-irritating for a few days. Feed wheat rather than corn for a week.

The cause is attributed in most cases to an over fat condition. This produces pressure on the egg passage causing difficulty in the proper function. Sometimes the muscles are weakened by streaks of fat which cause straining, the weak walls give way permitting the egg or its contents to pass into the abdominal cavity. This condition produces inflammation.

Symptoms. - The fowl thus affected has a constant desire to strain. The violent strain sometimes ruptures a blood vessel causing sudden death.

Hold the fowl's vent over steam from boiling water and then pass a finger up the vent. Have the finger well oiled. If the case is bad, pierce the egg and remove the contents, then break the shell and withdraw the pieces. Be sure and leave none of the broken shell behind.

The habit of egg eating may be caused by the nests being low and near the light. The hens get into them, scratch around and break the eggs and thus form the egg-eating habit. Soft shelled or broken eggs about the yards may be a cause.

Treatment. - Place all nests at least 2 feet above the floor and in a medium dark place. Remove all signs of broken eggs. The fowl detected should be removed to a different place.

Dump a pail of egg shells in the yard and mash some of them. One dose should cure the egg eaters. If it does not, get more and keep them constantly on hand. "This is a positive cure for egg eating" writes a raiser who ought to know.

Remove the inside of an egg through an opening in one end. Mix the contents with a little pepper; put them back into the shell and stick a piece of white cloth over the broken part. Put this where the egg eating hen can peck it. After she has tried to eat it she will seldom bother about eating her eggs again.

It is usually due to a poultryman's carelessness in some way. Overcrowding, improper feeding or lack of exercise are prime causes of these habits.

Treatment. - See that the birds get all the animal food they need. Keep them busy scratching for their food. Isolate the offender for a time.

Boil oats till soft and plump, and into a pail of this mixture stir a good pinch of salt and one quart of beef scrap. Feed this to the birds.

Gapes is a disease which develops in small chicks and is caused by the presence of a parasite worm which attaches itself to the mucus lining of the windpipe.

The worm which causes this disease is sometimes called the red worm or the forked worm because of its color and the fact that the male and female are firmly grown together in forked shape. The heads of both are attached to the mucous membrane of the windpipe, sucking the blood and causing an irritation and obstruction of the passage to such an extent as to interfere seriously with the breathing.

The symptoms are more often observed in chicks from ten days to four weeks old. The affected birds are found gaping, sneezing or coughing with an effort. When badly affected, the bird shakes its head frequently as if suffocating; stands in a "dumpish" position with wings drooped and mouth open.

Treatment. - All sick birds should be removed from the well ones. Coops and runs should be thoroughly disinfected. To the coops apply an application of hot whitewash. The ground or runs should be well limed with airslaked lime, spaded up and should be sprinkled with one of the following solutions : A two percent solution of sulphuric acid in water or two ounces of copperas (sulphate of iron) dissolved in a bucket of water, or a solution of permanganate of potassium in water, half an ounce of the crystals in a barrel of water; or a strong solution of creolin, two tablespoonfuls in each gallon of water. The ground should be well sprinkled with one of the above solutions after infected chicks have been removed. Then plow or spade and sprinkle again. Repeat this disinfection whenever infected chicks have been on the ground. Scald all drinking vessels used by sick birds. Burn all chicks which die of gapes.

Preventive Treatment. - A piece of copperas placed in the drinking water is said to prevent contagion. Tincture of asafetida, a teaspoonful in a quart of water, is used for the same purpose and has a curative action. Three drams of salicylate of soda in a quart of drinking water is also recommended as a preventive.

A farmer in the tobacco raising section of western Ohio was bothered considerably with the loss of a number of small chickens from gapes. One day he was burning some tobacco stubs and a number of the gaping young chicks walked into the smoke smudge. He noticed that as they came out they were coughing and appeared to be greatly relieved. Deciding to experiment he placed some others that were almost dead in the smoke for a short time and then placed them in the open or fresh air. They also coughed and looking closely he found numbers of dead gape worms on little chips on the ground. He concluded that the smoke killed the gapes which were smothering the chicks and. the fresh air revived them causing the worms to be coughed from the throat.

Just put a small cover of coals in a basket or small box the size depending on the number of chickens, and cover it with a screen. After placing the affected chickens in the box place some dampened tobacco upon the coals. This will cause a smudge and the chickens will have to inhale it. Cover the box for a minute or two. When the chickens begin to weave about or fall over take them out into the fresh air which will revive them and start coughing. The smoke will kill the worms, the coughing will expel them and the chicken is relieved. Other chickens picking up the dead worms cannot be affected with the disease.

Put a small quantity of kerosene into the pan of drinking water accessible to the chickens with gapes. Put several pieces of camphor gum in the drinking pan.

This trouble may be due to insufficient or poor food, lack of exercise or poorly ventilated houses. Lice or mites may be contributing cause, and it may be due to some such disease as tuberculosis, aspergillosis or worms.

Symptoms. - "Going Light" is a term applied to fowls which lose weight rapidly, become weak and emaciated without any apparent reason. When lifted they seem to weigh little more than the feathers with which they are covered.

Treatment. - First, if possible, discover the cause. If no defect is found in the food and the fowls and houses are free from lice, much time may often be saved by killing one or more of the birds and making a post-mortem examination to discover if the trouble is caused by some specific disease. Open the intestines the entire length to learn if there are a sufficient number of worms to account for their condition. If any diseased condition is found, follow the treatment recommended for such disease found elsewhere in this department.

Treatment. - A well balanced ration, not too much bulky food, clean, fresh water, birds kept in a dry, well ventilated house and compelled to take plenty of exercise, will ordinarily put back into condition a deranged digestive tract. Green food should be given poultry once every day in the year. * It invigorates the liver, sends pure blood into the vital organs of the system, and will keep them in better condition than all liver tonics combined.

Inflammation of the egg passage may occur in connection with an eggbound condition. This condition is usually the result of too much fat and is more frequently found in the larger breeds. Inflammation may be due to the use of some of the egg-foods advertised to increase egg production and which have an irritating effect if used too long. Many of these cases are due to a retained egg that might be removed. The eggs are large, the passage is fatty, an egg is retained and inflammation follows.

Symptoms. - There .is a constant desire to strain. The violent strain sometimes ruptures a blood vessel and causes sudden death. The feathers of the bird are ruffled and the wings droop as though there were a relaxing of the muscles. The vent of the bird is hot, red and in motion. The temperature of the bird drops and death follows from the extended inflammation.

egg, it must be removed at once. Oil the finger and carefully insert in the passage. If the broken egg is within reach, it can, with patience, be removed. If too far away, use injections of olive oil repeatedly. This will have a soothing effect and tend to remove the broken or retained egg.

The broken egg being removed, the passage should be syringed with warm oil containing a few drops of carbolic acid and 20 to 30 grains of sulphate of magnesia administered and repeated two or three times.

Symptoms. - The most common symptoms are a "roupy cold" without the "roupy smell" which may or may not be accompanied by a watery diarrhea. The fowl is dumpish and feverish, the eyes and nostrils are watery and there is much sneezing; no patches on the throat.

Treatment. - Warm housing and protection from cold and wet. Give 1 grain quinine to an adult fowl. It is well to isolate the birds as the early stages of roup are sometimes mistaken for a simple cold. The fowls are more liable to contract roup when suffering from a cold and on this account, should be isolated and examined often.

Put 20 drops of camphor in a teaspoonful of sugar, and dissolve in a pint of water. Give this as the birds' only drink. This often checks the trouble at once.

Leg weakness is seldom seen except in a flock from three to six months old. The cockerels are more apt to be affected than the pullets. One of the causes is over feeding of fat producing foods, thus producing more weight than the legs can properly support. The larger the variety, the more tendency there is to leg weakness through feeding. Another cause for leg weakness is the feeding of too little bone and muscle-forming foods. Chicks kept on board floors too long and not given soil to run on are liable to leg weakness.

Symptoms. - The first symptom is a slight weakness of the legs in walking. The gait is unsteady and in a few days the fowl may be found sitting while eating and tries to avoid walking. During the first few days, the appetite is not affected but as time passes, the bird is slow to feed and fails to get its share of grain. It is driven about and picked at by the other fowls and at last becomes thin and louse ridden.

Treatment. - Reduce the quantity of fat producing foods to a small amount. Do not feed corn or corn meal. Feed only three times daily. If possible, put the weak birds in a place by themselves. Feed steamed cut clover as a noon meal in summer or winter. As in all cases, clean water and houses go with good care. Rub the legs with arnica and add half a teaspoonful of tincture of nux vomica to each quart of drinking water. Do not confuse leg weakness with rheumatism. In the latter disease, there is always swollen joints. A good bran or meat meal containing at least one-fifth bone should be made part of the morning mash, proportion : One part meal to six of grain and clover.

A good food is to give bran, wheat and oatmeal; skirn milk instead of water. Cook oatmeal and when cool add 30 drops of diluted phosphoric acid for each bird affected and give twice daily. Give from 3 to 6 grains citrate of iron each day as a tonic.

Symptoms. - The fowl shows signs of irritation, cannot rest and looks unthrifty. Sometimes setting hens leave their nests before hatching time, and upon examination it will be found that the presence of lice is the cause of it. They will be found largely under the wings, about the vent and on the head and neck. It is with young chicks that lice work the worst havoc. They are usually found under the throat and on the top of the head.

Treatment. - Lice are found deep among the feathers and any treatment to be, successful must reach them. Dust the fowls with some good lice killer. Persian insect powder, or powdered sulphur are very successful. Use a box with a perforated cover and dust the fowls after they have gone to roost. Hold the hen firmly by the legs, head downward, and sift the powder through the loosened feathers. Dust at least three times about a week apart. Begin the fight early. There is no harm in giving the fowls an application even in midwinter. As they are seldom entirely free from lice this will keep them from getting a start. Dust setting hens with the powder before putting them on the nest.

Road dust 2 quarts, and tobacco dust 1 pint, or well sifted hard coal ashes may be substituted for the road dust and Persian insect powder or flowers of sulphur may be used in place of tobacco dust. The principal thing is to have the ingredients mixed to a very fine dust.

One teaspoonful of sulphur in the feed for 20 chicks or a tablespoonful for 20 adult fowls is good. A large quantity will not hurt them. Repeat every day until the lice are, gone. Some say not to feed sulphur in wet weather but it will not hurt the chickens.

The condition is due to the absorption of poison which acts upon the nervous system and causes paralysis. It is generally associated with indigestion or worms. It is very similar to ptomaine poisoning.

Symptoms. - The muscles of the fowl's neck become so relaxed they cannot support the head, and the fowl stands or squats with the head resting on the ground.

Treatment. - For adult fowls give from one to two teaspoonfuls of oil of turpentine mixed with the same amount of sweet oil. For small chicks give a mixture of from two to ten drops of each. In one-half hour mix one teaspoonful ginger with one-half cup hot, sweet milk slightly sweetened. To adult fowls give one to two tablespoonfuls every hour or two and to chicks one-half to one teaspoonful.

Mix equal parts of lard, ginger, mustard and cayenne pepper. Form into flat pills the size of a dime and give one of these every three hours if necessary.

These parasites breed in the cracks or joints of, poultry houses, or anywhere that filth is allowed to accumulate. They suck the blood and are dangerous to the health of fowls of all ages.

Treatment. - A good preparation which will destroy the mites, and also lice, is made by shaving one-half pound laundry soap into one-half gallon rainwater. Boil until the soap is dissolved, remove from the fire and stir into it, while still hot, 2 gallons of kerosene oil. This also makes a good disinfectant. When it is to be used for killing mites or lice in the houses, use one part of this mixture to 10 parts of water. When used as disinfectant add one quart of the mixture to 10 quarts of water and stir well; then add one pint of crude carbolic acid or cresol and stir again. When well mixed apply to all crevices and cracks, and spread over walls, floors, roosts and nest boxes.

The free use of kerosene is highly recommended in fighting mites. Applv to roosts, nests and all cracks and crevices. The walls may be sprayed with kerosene.

Poultry houses should be whitewashed frequently to kill disease germs as well as insects which lodge in cracks and walls. The following formula for whitewash will adhere to walls and last for a long time, either inside or outside: Half a bushel of unslaked lime slaked in warm water. Keep covered so the steam will not escape. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve. Add a peck of salt previously dissolved in water, three pounds of rice which has been ground and boiled to a thin paste. One-half pound of Spanish whiting and a pound of glue which has been melted over a slow heat, and 5 gallons of hot water. Stir well and let stand covered 5 days. Heat before ap- plying to walls. If properly applied one pint of this mixture will cover one square yard. Coloring may be added to make any shade. It will retain its brilliancy for years. For inside of poultry houses, add 2 pints of carbolic acid for disinfectant.

Pip is sometimes a dry condition of the tongue appearing in several diseases of the air passages, such as catarrh, bronchitis, roup and pneumonia. It is a symptom of disease, not a disease itself.

Pip, or the dry condition of the tongue, is produced by the rapid passing ovec the tongue of feverish breath combined with increased temperature of the body.

Give soft food for a day or two, and 20 grains of Epsom salts for two mornings. Wash the mouth with water containing boric acid. Paint the tongue twice a day with glycerine or olive oil.

The causes of the ailment are exposure to cold and dampness, the feeding of too much animal matter and not enough vegetable matter. There is sometimes a hereditary tendency to this disease.

Symptoms. - The symptoms of rheumatism and leg weakness are not always distinguishable. One of the first symptoms of the former is the jerky walk and the joints become swollen. . Inflammation and pain in the joints and muscles cause the bird to sit down most of the time. Trying to straighten the limbs hurts the bird.

Treatment. - The treatment also suggests the line to follow in the prevention of the disease. The birds should be housed in dry, sunny quarters and fed an abundance of green vegetables not forgetting clover mash. For internal treatment iodide of potassium is highly recommended, fifteen grains to every quart of drinking water. Use small dishes so it will all be used while fairly fresh. This is good for chicks as well as old fowls.

Rub the swollen parts with extract of witch hazel two or three times each day. Common baking soda, 1 level teaspoonful to each quart of drinking water, has given good results. Give 20 grams of Epsom salts followed the next day by fifteen grains bicarbonate of soda to each pint of drinking water.

diarrhea in chicks and blackhead in turkeys. It is encouraged by keeping fowls in badly ventilated houses, keeping too many in one room and allowing the poultry house to become damp and the droppings to accumulate in the house.

Symptoms. - The symptoms at first resemble those of a severe cold attended with a feverish condition, a discharge from the nostrils and a frothy substance in the corners of the eyes. The appetite diminishes and the fowl sits with head drawn in, wings drooping and having the general appearance of depression and illness.

Treatment. - The sick fowls should be removed from the flock to a warm, dry and well ventilated room. The affected membranes should then be treated by applying antiseptic and healing mixtures. The best method is a spraying apparatus but an oil-can or even a medicine dropper can be used. A good remedy for this treatment is boric acid 1 ounce, water 1 quart, or permanganate of potash 1 dram, water 1 quart, or peroxide of hydrogen 1 ounce, water 3 ounces. Before applying these remedies it is well to wash the mouth and eyes with a solution of warm water containing 1 teaspoonful of salt to a quart. Don't forget to wash the hands well after handling sick fowls.

Preventive Treatment. - If the disease be taken in hand early, or as a preventive measure it can frequently be stamped out by using a creolin spray. Mix 1 teaspoonful of pure creolin in a gallon of water. With a small spray pump that throws a very fine mist, spray this solution about the poultry houses after the birds have gone to roost. Spray about the heads of the birds so they may inhale the vapor. It will cause a great deal of sneezing and coughing. This treatment every night for ten days or two weeks, will cure many stubborn catarrhal colds and often cures mild cases of roup.

A tablespoonful of clear lard, half a tablespoonful each of vinegar, cayenne pepper and mustard; mix well together and add flour until the whole has the consistency of dough; roll into slugs about the size of the top joint of the little finger and put one down the patient's throat. Repeat in twelve hours, if necessary. One dose often cures a mild attack.

Spirits of turpentine, one part, with glycerine six parts, makes a good lotion for bathing the face and eyes, for injecting into the nostrils and for swabbing the throat of roupy fowls.

Make a 20% solution of common baking soda. Bathe the head and inject into the cleft in the roof of the mouth. Then repeat this process using peroxide of hydrogen instead of baking soda. Then inject into the cleft in the roof of the mouth and down the throat, the following prescription: Oil of thyme 1 dram, oil of eucalyptus 20 drops, oil of petrol 2 ounces.

Get some two-decimal tablets of bin-iod of mercury, and for adult fowls give two tablets night and morning. In the drinking water use permanganate of potash. Get the crystals and dissolve them in a bottle of water and then put enough of this solution in the drinking water to make the water quite purple. Continue this latter medicine for a week and it will take the disease out of the flock. It is only the worst cases that will need the bin-iod of mercury.