16 NATURE AND ITS 



feeding 1 corn in hot weather; the hens are too fat, and with 

 the hot weather cannot stand it. Cholera is nothing- else 

 than over feeding- stock in hot weather on fattening food. 

 They g-et diarrhoea, yellow and then green, their combs turn 

 black, they drink themselves to death to cool off. The rea- 

 son they drink so much water is that they want to cool off 

 their insides, as they fairly burn up, their droppings almost 

 boil, turns yellow, then green and they die by the hundreds. 



Poultry in Summer. 



Poultry in summer should not roost in the house. An 

 open shed is the best thing for them. In the fall don't take 

 them from the open sheds and put them in a warm, closed 

 house, but leave 1 windows and doors open to the south. When 

 it gets so cold that the ground freezes, then only close the 

 houses at night, and leave open during the day. Don't have 

 any top ventilation; this is all foolishness, and is not natural. 

 Poultrymen have made a thousand mistakes. Don't use drop 

 boards; the very idea of having drop boards six inches under 

 the roosts ! The fowls have to breathe the smell of the 

 manure all night long. This causes consumption, weak lungs 

 distemper, fever and other sicknesses. Do wild birds have 

 drop boards ? A wild bird or a turkey roosts away up high 

 and the smell of the manure never reaches them. 



Another mistake Poultry writers have made is feeding 

 mash foods to Poultry, and all kinds of rich foods, stimulat- 

 ing- them to make them grow, to make them moult quickly, 

 and to make them lay lots of eggs. They are only killing 

 the hens by doing this. 



I want to call your attention to another fact. If you 

 only stop to think, a fowl or bird has a gizzard. They grind 

 their own food by eating- sharp stones, crockery, glass, etc. 

 Now, if you feed mash food, the gizzard cannot grind it, 

 because it is already ground when the chicken eats it. Now 

 then, the food merely lays in the gizzard a few hours and 

 passes out. In the meantime the gizzard has been idle, and 

 the gizzard should be kept busy grinding to keep the fowl 



