WITH 4200 HENS 153 



pox in a yard of 1,200 hens, and no other case developed 

 in the flock. 



The origin of the trouble is shrouded in mystery so 

 far as the writer is concerned as much so as is "Spanish 

 Influenza." Fluent writers, poultry "experts," and men 

 of science easily and airily ascribe it to filthy, unsanitary 

 conditions; to infection, either from a strange bird 

 brought in or from birds of the air ; or to other equally 

 indefinite causes. 



As to its originating or germinating only in unsanitary, 

 filthy quarters this is rather hard on those of us of the 

 poultry fraternity who live and have our being in the 

 welfare of our birds, and to him who has made any 

 serious study of the trouble it simply brands the author 

 of the statement as an ignoramus. It would be rather 

 remarkable that plants conducted on so great a variety 

 of plans and systems as may be found in the poultry in- 

 dustry, that all of these should be permitted to degenerate 

 into filth and disease almost coincidently. During our 

 last siege we had calls for assistance in combating the 

 trouble from points as much as thirty miles apart ; from 

 breeders with thousands of hens as well as from fanciers 

 with a dozen birds kept in gilt cages on carpeted floors. 



As to the infection and contagion theories, we are 

 equally in ignorance. Our experience is that not all of 

 the birds in a flock will be attacked. Our records indi- 

 cate that about 70 per cent of the birds will be immune. 

 And experiments have proven that some birds cannot 

 be infected. We have had healthy birds in the isolation 

 ward where both pox and canker in every possible stage 

 were rampant and the healthy birds could not be infected. 



