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MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK: 



The kind of lice that are so deadly 

 to little turkeys are the same as the 

 head lice of chickens. They are to be 

 found on the heads and necks of the 

 turkeys, and also on the large feath- 

 ers at the edge of the wing. They 

 seem to sap the life out of the turkeys. 

 I always rub the "Buhach" powder 

 well into the down on the head and 

 at the roots of the wing feathers, 

 whether they have signs of lice or not, 

 for it is better to be sure than sorry. 



Ticks In trouble again. We are 

 renting a place until we can build on 

 our own, and every building on it is 

 simply alive with little brown ticks; 

 they bury themselves in the heads of 

 the chickens, the ears of the dogs, the 

 feet of the animals and all over our 

 bodies. What shall I do? Please tell 

 me and tell me quick. A neighbor 

 says lard and carbolic acid on their 

 heads and spray with distillate, but 

 neither seems to do any good so far. 

 I am out of the chicken business since 

 moving here, except a few for our 

 own use. Yours sincerely, J. J. W. 



Answer The easiest way to get rid 

 of them is to pour coal oil over the 

 buildings and then set fire to them, 

 but as you are in a rented place, that 

 would scarcely be possible. The next 

 best plan is to paint the place thor- 

 oughly with corrosive sublimate; it is 

 what I recommended to you for the 

 plague of mites at your other place. 

 Ticks are one of the worst plagues in 

 Southern California. They are so thin 

 and flat that they hide between the 

 shingles and boards. They really are 

 no thicker than a bit of paper, and 

 nothing kills them but the corrosive 

 sublimate (bi-chloride of mercury). 

 This can either be put on with a brush 

 or be sprayed on the houses. You 

 remember that it is very poisonous 

 and great care must be used in hand- 

 ling it. When once your coops are 

 free of ticks, or other vermin, you can 

 keep them so by spraying with kero- 

 sine emulsion that I have so often 

 given. Distillate, liquid lice killer, 

 coal tar and other preparations of car- 

 bolic acid or creosote are all good to 

 keep out vermin, but I know they 

 will not drive out ticks. 



Depluming Mites Two years ago I 

 started to raise White Leghorns, com- 

 mencing with two cocks and twelve 

 pullets of as good strain as I could 



secure at the time. This spring I had 

 a splendid looking flock of 100 females 

 and twelve males. They were beau- 

 ties, but recently developed the feath- 

 er pulling habit and are now a sight. 

 Never in moulting time have I seen 

 poultry look worse. Many of the hens 

 look as though plucked for market, 

 and not one of the roosters has a ves- 

 tige of tail. The hens still keep up 

 laying as well as before (from fifty to 

 sixty-five daily), but I cannot believe 

 this will hold out in their present con- 

 dition. 



I have them on a two-acre range 

 and feed them cut green bone in large 

 quantities four times a week in addi- 

 tion to all the other grains obtainable. 

 My experience can only suggest two 

 causes for such a state of affairs:! 

 Insufficient animal food. 2 Close 

 confinement. But neither of these 

 causes enter into the present state of 

 affairs. Can you advance a reason and 

 suggest a remedy. By so doing you 

 will greatly oblige one who is getting 

 interested in raising fine looking birds. 

 F. S. S., Tucson, Ariz. 



Answer Your birds have what is 

 called ''Depluming mites." The prin- 

 cipal symptom of this trouble is a loss 

 of feathers from spots of various sizes, 

 situated on different parts of the body. 

 The feathers break off at the surface 

 of the skin, and at the root of the 

 feather is seen a small mass of epi- 

 dermic scales which is easily crushed 

 into powder. A microscopic examina- 

 tion of this powder reveals numerous 

 mites and the debris which they pro- 

 duce. 



The disease appears in poultry 

 yards as a consequence of the intro- 

 duction of one or more birds already 

 affected. It is readily communicated, 

 develops rapidly and in a few days a 

 whole flock is contaminated. It us- 

 ually begins on the rump and spreads 

 rapidly to the back, the thighs and the 

 belly. An infested cock will rapidly 

 infest all the fowls in a poultry yard. 

 Often the head and the upper surface 

 of the neck are affected early in the 

 course of the disease. The feathers 

 fall off at all these points and finally 

 the skin is denuded over a large ex- 

 tent of surface. The large feathers of 

 the tail and wings and the wing cov- 

 erts are generally retained. 



The denuded skin presents a normal 

 appearance; it is smooth and soft, of a 

 pinkish color and not perceptibly 



