No. fi. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 395 



winter time. Colds, i-oiip jiiul all sorts of I rouble are quite suvr to 

 follow. The right time to build a new house is in June or July. 

 Finish the frame-work, roofing and flooring thoroughl.y, then put on 

 the three-ply tarred paper and then give it a thorough coating of 

 tar and let it stand and season during July, August and September. 

 Begin to occupy it with your pullets in October. Give it another 

 coat of tar then; an additional coat of tar each year, and the house 

 will last indefinitely. The bath is just as essential to the hen as to 

 the man. She does not need hers in water. Dust is what she wants. 

 If you did not save some fine road dust last summer you can probably 

 secure some fine coal ashes now. Sift them through a fine sieve so 

 that all cinders are taken out. Place at least a bushel of these in 

 a box about 2^ feet square and one foot deep, throw in a little grain 

 to get them started. Stir the ashes up from the bottom every few 

 days and the hens wall soon learn that these ashes are there for 

 them to use, and they will make everything in that house dusty. 

 The box should be so placed that the sun can shine into it and warm 

 the ashes. Wood ashes are not good. The alkali irritates the skin 

 and discolors the shanks. A little sulphur mixed through the ashes 

 is good. Some are mixing acidulated South Carolina rock-phosphate 

 with the ashes with good effect and some use this exclusively for a 

 dust bath. I have not tried it, but I fear it is too heavy. 



No one thing has discouraged so many people as lice. There are 

 a half dozen varieties on our domestic fowls. I have seen three 

 kinds on the same bird at one time. The dust bath will enable 

 "biddy" to rid herself of many of them, but there are enough lazy 

 hens that will not dust themselves to keep up the supply of lice in 

 the house. Besides, some of the most vexatious varieties of lice are 

 not on them in daytime, but at night only. For these the dust bath 

 has no terrors. There are various powders for dusting hens, but 

 except for setting hens the powder business is too slow and too 

 laborious. I formerly made lice powders for myself and my neigh- 

 bors, but it is no small task to dust a. hundred hens thoroughly, even 

 though you have a whirligig machine to help do the work. There 

 are several good liquid lice killers, the fumes of which are death to 

 all insect life, and these can be applied so rapidly and effectually as 

 to make them cheap, even though they cost twice as much as they 

 do. Don't be deluded with the kerosene theory. Lice may not enjo} 

 or thrive on a diet of kerosene, but there are many varieties of lice 

 that will wade through kerosene to do business. 



If you are building a new^ house you can do much in the way of 

 prevention. Spray the cracks and corners with the liquid there, a 

 terror to new lice and of the detestable mites uninhabitable. Paint 

 your dropping boards thoroughly with the liquid when you put them 

 in and you will have the disinfecting ordor of the li(iuid there, a ter 



