438 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



erally recommended in case of sickness in poultry. Some of the 

 most common poultry diseases and other troubles with which the 

 poultry raiser has to contend, are referred to in the following para- 

 graphs : 



Gapes. — "Gapes is a poultry parasitic disease more easily pre- 

 vented than cured." It is so called because of the characteristic 

 gasping m.ovement of the chick into whose trachea, or windpipe, 

 small red worms, about one-third of an inch in length and with 

 smooth bodies and pointed tails, have become so numerous as to 

 interfere with breathing. Young chicks suffer most. Some be- 

 lieve that the angle worm is the cause of the spreading of gapes. 

 Cleanliness and keeping chicks on a board floor until they are 

 large enough to resist the attacks of the worms are the best pre- 

 ventives. A chick affected with gapes may often be relieved if 

 a feather, horse hair or a bit of grass is passed down its throat and 

 worms removed. Another remedy is to fasten the affected birds 

 in a box over which a thin cloth has been placed and through this 

 sift lime, but care must be taken lest too much lime be used. A 

 French scientist asserts that the use of pounded garlic in food 

 has completely eradicated the disease among pheasants in Europe. 



Roup. — The first symptoms of roup are sneezing and running 

 at the nostrils, the discharge having a very offensive odor. Un- 

 less the trouble is checked the nostrils fill up, the head and face 

 become swollen, air bubbles appear in the corners of the eyes, ap- 

 petite fails, the comb turns black, and death follows. The disease 

 is very contagious, so that the sick birds should be separated from 

 the well ones. Then seek the cause of the trouble, which may be 

 overheating followed by exposure, or it may be that the birds have 

 been exposed to drafts. The curtain-front house is doing much to 

 lessen the losses from roup. One remedy for the disease is a few 

 drops of tincture of muriate of iron and a small piece of gum cam- 

 phor in the drinking water. Some suggest injecting ordinary 

 kerosene into the nostrils, then bathe head with one part soda and 

 four parts water. Roup is generally accompanied by a form of 

 canker in the mouth and throat, which should be swabbed out and 

 followed by a 10 per cent solution of nitrate of silver. Another 

 remedy sometimes recommended is to dissolve two ounces per- 

 manganate of potash in 6^ pints of water, then hold bird's head 

 in this as long as it can stand it. 



Mrs. J. M. Baugher writes as follows concerning roup : "One 

 of the first signs of roup is sneezing or whistling, or an unnatural 

 appearance of the eyes and comb. Sometimes the eye lids are 



