POULTRY DISEASES AND THEIR REMEDIES. 1119 



CHAPTER XIX. 



POULTRY DISEASES AND THEIR REMEDIES. 



/""^AUSBS. The chief causes of disease among poultry are 

 - damp houses, swampy yards, lack of cleanliness about the 

 ^^ houses and yards, impure water, improper food, overfeed- 

 ing, lack of sufficient ventilation, crowding too many fowls into 

 one house, lice, and lack of constitutional vigor in the parent 

 stock. 



Prevention. It is easier to prevent poultry diseases than 

 to cure them, and it is cheaper, too. The preventive measures 

 here recommended are indorsed by all the leading poultry author- 

 ities in the country, and from practical experience and personal 

 observation I can assure the reader that the poultry yards where 

 the following directions are faithfully observed will not often be 

 visited by disease of any kind. 



1. The poultry-house should be dry, clean, thoroughly ven- 

 tilated without exposing the fowls to draughts of air, and never 

 over-crowded. Every morning some absorbent dry earth or 

 land plaster should be sprinkled over the droppings beneath 

 the roosts ; and twice a week in summer, once a week in winter, 

 the droppings should be removed from the house. When the 

 floor of the house is covered with earth it should be frequently 

 raked over, and twice a week fresh, dry earth should be put in. 

 Every spring and fall, oftener when chicken cholera or any con- 

 tagious disease is in the locality, whitewash the whole of the 

 inside of the house. When disease is present among the flock, 

 dissolve one-half pound of copperas in a pailful of hot water and 

 use it to mix the wash with. When chicken cholera prevails in 

 neighboring poultry yards use daily a disinfectant fluid made 

 by dissolving three pounds of copperas in five gallons of water, 



