A SELF-SUPPORTING HOME 



is not cholera at all, but the work of lice. On 

 some farms where the hens hide away at night 

 here and there, for want of some kind of 

 suitable shelter, the trees, wood pile, sheds, 

 and under the barns will be swarming with 

 lice; and dead hens may be found every 

 morning, being literally eaten alive by myr- 

 iads of lice, the cause being attributed to 

 cholera or some disease, simply because the 

 owner cannot comprehend how lice can be 

 so destructive. On such farms there may 

 also be found an apology for a hen-house, 

 the floor of which will be covered for a foot 

 or more with droppings, being the accumula- 

 tion of years; but which house will be found 

 useless, as the hens will prefer exposure to 

 all kinds of weather rather than venture in 

 the pest hole filled with lice and called a 

 poultry house. Some farmers wonder how 

 it is that they get no eggs, and they natu- 

 rally ascribe their failure to "there being no 

 money in chickens"; when the fact is that 

 if they were as negligent of their horses, 



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