POULTRY 449 



Zinc sulphocarbonate 15 grains 



Calcium sulphocarbonate 7^2 grains 



Sodium sulphocarbonate 7^ grains 



Bichloride of mercury 6 grains 



Citric acid 3 grains 



This amount is considered one dose, and should be mixed 

 with one gallon of water and used for drinking purposes 

 during the first month. After this the chicks should have 

 it two times a week for two weeks. 



Gapes. Gapes is another disease attacking young 

 chicks. It is caused by a small worm picked up from the 

 soil. The worms attach themselves to the inner walls of 

 the windpipe, where they draw their food from the blood 

 of the chick, thereby weakening it, and also clogging the 

 passage so that the chick gasps for breath. 



Here again prevention is a question of sanitation. If 

 the soil is free of the worms, there will be no gapes in the 

 chickens. It is well, therefore, to keep the young chicks 

 on clean new ground on which former broods have not been 

 raised. 



Cholera. Several different kinds of germs commonly 

 found in the intestines of chickens may, under certain con- 

 ditions, cause diseases known as cholera. True chicken 

 cholera is caused only by one particular germ, however. 

 Cholera is contracted by contact with fowls sick with the 

 disease, by germs carried by new birds brought into the 

 flock, by germs brought by wild birds that alight in the poul- 

 try yard, or dogs and other animals that roam from place 

 to place. 



It does not pay to try to cure fowls that have contracted 

 the disease. It is best to kill them at once, burning or 

 deeply burying the bodies. Care should mostly center on 

 prevention. First of all, the flock must have sanitary sur- 

 roundings good air, sunshine, quarters that are dry and 

 clean, and should have suitable food. 



