u6 The Natural Method. 



If chicks grow listless, neglect their food and show loose 

 bowels, or the reverse, look for tiie cause. There is always a 

 cause, and it must be found and removed. "What ails my 

 chicks ? " wrote a troubled owner to his favorite paper this 

 very season. " They sit around listlessly, their wings droop, 

 and after moping a few days, they die, one after another." 

 This man was on the right track, because he was asking the 

 cause. But the reply was : "Thousands of chicks die thus 

 every year ; we never heard of a remedy for this trouble." To 

 throw an inquirer off the right track thus is culpable. There 

 certainly was a cause for the death of those chicks. It might 

 be that their ancestors had been inbred so long that they had 

 no constitution ; it might be that they had been subjected to a 

 chill, or that they were infested with lice. If told this, the 

 owner would have known at once whether or not the first sup- 

 position was correct ; the second usually shows in bowel trouble 

 and a pasting up of the vent ; the third could have been over- 

 come by the use of the proper means. Possibly he might not 

 have been able to save the chicks on hand, but his question 

 showed good sense enough to make it seem certain that he 

 would see that next year's chicks did not " droop " thus, if he 

 were given a strong hint as to the probable causes of the diffi- 

 culty. 



The prominent causes of disease, or of a condition which 

 may invite disease, may be briefly summed up as follows: 

 Generally a lack of ancestral stamina or vigor ; specifically, 

 raw or sour feed, impure water, lack of green food, lack of 

 sharp grinding material, excessive sun heat, or the reverse, a 

 chill or a drenching, filthy quarters, presence of vermin. Any 

 one of these may take off half the flock while the owner is 

 waking up to wonder what ails the chicks. Therefore vigilant 

 watch must be kept for symptoms of disease, and more especi- 

 ally for the precursor of these wrong conditions, and such con- 

 ditions must be corrected at once, if they exist. 



A physician called to attend a typhoid fever patient never 

 rests until he ferrets out the cause of the disease. He doesn't 



