POULTRT-CRAFI. 215 



" FUMIGATION Use ordinary sulphur candles : one candle will serve for an ordinary 

 poultry house having about one hundred and fifty square feet of floor space. Drive the 

 fowls from the house, and carefully close all doors and windows before lighting the 

 candle, which should be put on an old tin can cover placed on a pan of wet ashes. After 

 lighting the sulphur shut the house up tightly, and keep it so for four or five hours. Air 

 the building thoroughly before allowing the fowls to return. Treat the fowls for lice 

 at the same time. 



"INSECT POWDERS most of the insect powders in the market are good. Those lice 

 powders containing tobacco dust are best. Dusting with insect powder is of no value 

 unless thoroughly done, and repeated at least three times, at intervals of a week or ten 

 days. The best way to dust a fowl is to hold it by the legs, head down, over a box or 

 some receptacle to catch the surplus powder, and then, with the free hand, work the 

 powder thoroughly into the feathers and down to the skin. 



"KEROSENE is one of the most common, cheapest, and best insecticides for use in 

 the poultry house. Kerosene applied every month to the roosts is a good remedy against 

 mites. It may also be applied with a brush to the walls and all cracks in the poultry 

 house. 



"KEROSENE EMULSION is effective in place of whitewash for ridding the house of 

 vermin. It is made by dissolving a pound of hard soap in a gallon of boiling water, 

 remove from the fire and, while hot, add two gallons of kerosene. Churn or agitate 

 briskly for ten or fifteen minutes, or until the mixture becomes thick and creamy. Then 

 add about twenty gallons of cold water, and stir in thoroughly. It can be applied to the 

 coop by a sprayer, a watering pot, or an old broom. It should be driven well into all 

 cracks. 



" LIME AND SULPHUR a disinfecting powder is made of lime and sulphur as 

 follows: To half a bushel of fresh, thoroughly air-slaked lime add ten pounds of 

 powdered sulphur and a fluid ounce of carbolic acid ; mix thoroughly by stirring with 

 a stick. This powder is harmless to fowls, and may be used freely about the house, and 

 in nests and dust boxes. 



"TOBACCO STEMS and sweepings are excellent addition to nest material as a vermin 

 preventive. 



" Carry on the warfare against vermin in the poultry house, and on the fowls at the same 

 time, and you will get results." 



Besides the common hen lice, fowls suffer from attacks of other insects : 



Mosquitos often bite combs, faces, and wattles; apply a little carbolatecl 

 vaseline. 



Buffalo or Turkey Gnats in swarms attack fowls along river bottoms, 

 especially in Mississippi valley states. Preventive measures are: building 

 smudge fires, and smearing exposed parts with carbolated vaseline, or some 

 stinking oil. 



Chiggers, Harvest Mites are common in the Mississippi valley as far north 

 as Iowa. They harbor in weeds and bushes, and the only known preventive 

 is to keep the fowls out of such places. 



Fleas sometimes infest poultry houses. They are destroyed by usual 

 treatments for lice. 



Bedbugs can be exterminated by using whitewash, to which turpentine has 

 been added, or by applying to the spots they haunt: " Half-pint each of 



