HEALTH AND DISEASE OF POULTRY 595 



The mites subsist on the blood of the fowls and are not usually 

 found on the bodies of the bird except when at roost or on the 

 nest. During the day they inhabit cracks and crevices of the walls, 

 roosts, and nests. Sitting hens are often so annoyed that they are 

 compelled to leave the nests in order to relieve themselves of thesa 

 parasites. The free use of kerosene about the nests and perches ig 

 useful in fighting mites. The walls of the house may be sprayed 

 with kerosene, the operation being repeated every three or four 

 days for two weeks. Insect powders are of little avail. 



The following method has proved excellent in ridding houses 

 of mites and lice when the weather conditions are such as to permit 

 the birds being kept outside the house for five or six hours. Close 

 all the doors and windows and see that there are no cracks or any 

 other openings to admit air. Get an iron vessel and set it on gravel 

 or sarid near the center of the house; place in the vessel a hand- 

 ful of shavings or straw saturated with kerosene, and on these 

 sprinkle sulphur at the rate of about 1 pound to every 90 or 100 

 square feet of floor space. Instead of using the shavings and kero- 

 sene the sulphur can be saturated with wood alcohol. When 

 everything else is in readiness light the material and hastily leave 

 the house. In case any anxiety is felt about fire, a glance through 

 a window will show whether everything is all right. There is very 

 little danger of fire when proper precautions have been taken to 

 have plenty of soil beneath the vessel. Allow the house to remain 

 closed for three or four hours, at the end of which time one can 

 safely conclude that there are no living beings inside. Now throw 

 all the doors and windows wide open so as to drive out the sulphur 

 fumes thoroughly, and then the fowls may be allowed to enter. 

 Let them in one by one, and as each enters catch it and dust it well 

 with insect powder, which will destroy the lice on the birds. Tobacco 

 dust is also good to use instead of insect powder. The birds and 

 house have now been freed from vermin for the present, but the 

 eggs of the insects have not been destroyed, and in a week another 

 swarm will be hatched out. Therefore it will be necessary to re- 

 peat the operation once or twice before the pests are exterminated. 

 After this care should be used to see that no strange fowl is ad- 

 mitted to the house or yard without having been thoroughly rid 

 of lice, for one lousy hen will contaminate all the rest. (Agr. 

 Dep. Farmer B. 287.) 



FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR THE PREVENTION 

 AND TREATMENT OF DISEASE IN POULTRY. 



CLEANLINESS, THE FOUNDATION. 



It is the object of this discussion to impress upon poultry 

 keepers the one basal principle underlying all rules of health and 

 upon which only can be erected a successful system of treatment 

 of disease in poultry. In the final analysis one word furnishes the 

 subject of this discussion and sums up its conclusions. That word 

 is cleanliness. Cleanliness is at once tne corner stone of health and 

 the keystone of the arch of healing. If it can be shown that all 



