1902.] DISCUSSION. 233 



hard and firm it indicates constipation; that is, if very dif- 

 ferent from the normal in that direction. If too fluid, then 

 diarrhoea. It is often thought when chickens have the 

 cholera, and perhaps turkeys, that the presence of a great 

 amount of white and yellow material in the droppings indi- 

 cates cholera or diarrhcea. It only indicates that no food 

 has passed through the intestines. Of course, the dififerent 

 foods affect this also. When we feed bran and other things 

 we can see the character of the diet in the droppings. When 

 chickens eat insects and grain we note still another kind of 

 droppings. It is more compact. 



Mr. HiNMAN. I should like to ask if this disease which 

 has killed our turkeys when they have been about as large as 

 partridges for the last ten or fifteen years has any relation to 

 what is called the "blackhead"? Twenty-five years ago 

 there were a thousand trukeys grown over in the part of 

 Connecticut where I live (Oxford) where there are ten grown 

 now. It seems impossible to raise them. Most of us over 

 in my section have become so discouraged that we do not 

 try to raise them, as they never get to be of marketable size. 

 They die when they get to be about four or five pounds in 

 weight. 



Dr. Curtice. I believe I said in beginning to talk, that 

 this disease being a communicable disease, w'e could cut it 

 off by hatching the eggs under the common hen and keeping 

 the young away from infected flocks. Now if we can cut off 

 this disease by this process we can cut off others at the same 

 time. To get rid of this disease, or to prevent young tur- 

 keys from being affected by other communicable diseases you 

 must get eggs somewhere and start on a farm that has 

 not had turkeys which have been affected upon it, or if there 

 are affected turkeys upon it, set the eggs under a hen, and 

 then not allow the young turkeys to mix up with the others, 

 or run where they have been, and not buy any improved 

 stock elsewhere, but buy the eggs. I think for the first two 



