312 HOME LIFE IN FLOKIDA. 



CHAPTER XX. 



POULTRY PATIENTS. 



Florida's mild climate is especially adapted to the raising 

 of fowls on a large scale with a view to profit both in eggs 

 and flesh. 



The terrible diseases that so frequently rush rampant 

 through so many Northern poultry-yards, dealing whole- 

 sale death and destruction, are very rarely if ever met 

 wdth on Florida soil. Nine tenths of these disorders are 

 caused by exposure to inclement weather. Hence, there 

 is no other State in our great Union so especially adapted 

 to successful poultry-raising, since here the primary cause 

 of numerous failures is totally unknown ; and that Florida 

 will yet become the leading poultry-yard of the United 

 States we do firmly believe. 



Florida chickens are subject to very few diseases ; and 

 these, if proper care is taken, may almost invariably be 

 avoided, or at least cured. The most prevalent and most 

 fatal trouble that Florida chicken-" flesh is heir to," is here 

 termed " sore-head," or "warts," though neither of these 

 names is proper or distinctive. The fact is that the name 

 " sore-head," or " warts," is no more the name of a disease 

 than "sore toe," or "sore finger." And the disease they 

 are intended to designate is, in Florida at all events, not 

 one disease but several distinct ones. Thus, sore-head may 

 mean that a chicken has distemper, catarrh, ulceration, or 

 canker, which, in its worst stage, becomes that fatal dis- 

 ease, roup. 



These several diseases are twin sisters. The one follow- 

 ing the other as natural, progressive steps, and all proceed- 

 ing from that most simple but fruitful source of disease in 



