THE LANCASTE.R FARMER. 



8S 



well with tbe solution morning and evening. 

 If at all curable, the bird will be free from 

 the disease in three days. The bird should 

 be kept in a dry, warm place, apart from the 

 rest of the fowls." Prof. R. then coiuhidcs : 

 "As n prevDiliir. 1 fei'd young chicks twice a 

 week with wheat, .steeped in a solution of 

 carhnlic acid, ^lhe solution to Im; in the pro- 

 portion of one teaspoonful of the above men- 

 tioned acid to one pint of water). All wood 

 and coal ashes from the house are thrown into 

 the nest-house, and on the Hoor of the roost- 

 ing-house — having the two houses separate. 

 The roosting liouse is thoroughly cleansed 

 every Saturday, and some of the solution o 

 the carbolic acid sprinkled on the floor once 

 every mouth. The disinfecting and deoderiz. 

 ing properties of carbolic acid, render it alike 

 valuable as a preventivP ot (lontagion and as 

 a destroyer of vermin. As carbolic acid is 

 sparingly soluble in water, the solution recom- 

 mended should always be shaken before used." 

 From the foregoing the reader may infer 

 that it is no light task to cure fowls of the 

 yapes, or to prevent them from contracting 

 the disease, even after he understan<ls the 

 theory of their propagation and development. 

 Of course this will deiiend upon the lirae, oc- 

 cupation, and peculiar temperament of the 

 operator. There are, however, some very 

 sanguine people who regard the gapes as a 

 mere bagatelle, easier to cure tlian to cure 

 pork ; and, by the same substance too. From 

 page 90, Vol. 9, (1877) of The Lancaster 

 Fauiier, we reprint the following, but we 

 are entirely ignorant of its authority. 



"The more the naughty children of mother 

 earth try to put themselves in accord with her 

 beiielicent laws, the more pure, clear, few and 

 simple they will become, instead of being the 

 complex iuultifareous and often contradictory 

 beings they seem to be. For instance, the 

 simple little disease called gapes in chickens 

 is a strong case in point. Treated in the light 

 of natural laws (common sense) it yields read- 

 ily to the proper remedy — the same remedy 

 for the same disease that is indicated in the 

 human being ; for we are all essentially the 

 same flesh and blood, from the tadpole to the 

 President, and what is good for one, is good 

 for the other. Now, what do we use salt for 

 in almost every thing we eatV It not only 

 furnishes no nutriment, pleasure, or anything 

 else, but is absolutely a poison; and that is 

 the reason we take it, to prevent undue ger- 

 mination of worms within us. The old-time 

 Hollanders used to punish their criminals by 

 giving them unsalted food, and they were 

 thus soon literally devoured by the worms 

 engendered iu their own stomachs. Now 

 what causes gapes in chickens? Worms. 

 What is given animals to prevent this? Salt 

 But all the books, Ac, say salt will kill chick- 

 ens. So it would you, if you took too much, 

 as they often do through the habit of bolting 

 their food without mastication and tasting. 

 In brief, and in fact, when the weather is 

 damp and cool always put abr.ut as much salt 

 in the chick's feed as you would in your own 

 bread, and I will answer for the life of every 

 one. I never lost a chick by gapes in my life, 

 and have raised thousands." 



In'conclusiou, we reproduce from the edi- 

 torial columns of the Farmer— vol. 6, page 



132, June, 1874, the following as pertinent to 

 the subject. 



" In a recent conversation with an experien- 

 ced chifikcti grower, he informed us that he 

 bad been Very successful in conquering the 

 gapes in his young fowls, by the ap|)licati(in 

 of slaked-lime. As soon as this disease man- 

 ifests itself, he confines his chickens, one at a 

 time, in a box, sufliciently large to contain the 

 bird, and places a coarse piece of linen or 

 cotton clotU over the top. Upon this he 

 places the ludverized lime, and ta|>8 the screen 

 sulliciently to catise the lime to fall through. 

 This lime-dust the fowl inhales, which causes 

 it to sneeze, and in a short time the cause of 

 the gai)ea is thrown out in the form of a 

 mass or ma.sses of mucus and worms, 

 that had accumulated in the windpipe and 

 smaller air vessels of the fowl. This remedy 

 he considers far superior to any he has ever 

 tried, and he seldom fails to effect a perfect 

 cure. He has abjured all those mechanical 

 means by which it is attempted to dislodge 

 the Untozoa with instruments constructed of 

 whalebone, hog's bristles, p(^u-feathers, or line 

 wire, alleging that the operator of these 

 devices is quite as certain to push the worms 

 farther down the trachea of the fowls as to 

 draw them out." 



We have no reason whatever to question 

 the efticacy of this last described remedy, be- 

 cause we know that its narrator is a practical 

 poultry-grower, and luis been engaged in the 

 business for nearly or quite a quarter of a 

 century, and has no personal interest, in pro- 

 mulgating that which he knew was worthless. 

 We may, however, bo permitted to suggest 

 that he hardly knew the history and develop- 

 ment of the parasites that cause the gapes — 

 their tenacity and complex transitions— for 

 we don't recollect that he made any special 

 reference to the total destruction of the 

 worms after they had been dislodged from the 

 trachea Of the fowls. This precaution would 

 greatly enhance the value of his remedy. 



As to the gentle salt remedy, had it any 

 sponsor other than the incidental pro- 

 noun "/," we might seem discourteous in 

 indulging in criticism on it, especially since 

 we bad, some six years ago, admited it into 

 the columns of our journal without commeiit. 

 But to us 11020 it has the odor of inexperi- 

 ence and a very palpable "hole" in its 

 philosophy, through which its iuner structuve 

 is plainly revealed. The preservative qualities 

 of salt is admissible, but it is questionable 

 whether its absence would necessarily engen- 

 der worms, and we know that its ^ji-f.semr 

 does not always prevent worms. There are 

 vast tribes of peoples who never have used 

 salt, except in that highly diluted form iu 

 which it pervades physical nature, and we do 

 not think these have become food tor worms 

 in any special sense, whilst irirhinized flesh 

 has been found among that which had been 

 salted. 



In the June number of the L<iws of Life, a 

 writer states that he has entirely abjured 

 salt — has eaten no salt in his food for seven 

 years. Wonder he ain't afraid of being eaten 

 up by worms V 



When all the physical relations of gapes are 

 more thoroughly understood, perhaps the day 

 may not be distant when it may be prevented 

 or cured, as certainly "■ as anyUiiny dse.^' 



INSECTS AND INSECT REMEDIES. 



The Army Worm In Berks. 

 On the farm of Franklin CJrolT, in Jefferson 

 township, Berks coimty, the army worms de- 

 voun (1 a grass field of .seventeen acies, and 

 about two acres of corn. When they wert* 

 about to enter another field, Mr. Grofl- plowed 

 a ditch and thus prevented them from getling 

 toil. On the farm of Joseph Kallwch, the 

 worm ate up eleven acres of grans. 



The above is only a " Bi«*imen brick " of u 

 nninU-r of paragraphs, of siiullar import, 

 which we have noticed in dillerent newspajx.'iu 

 in regard to the dreaded "Army-worm." 

 This is .<5urely a sore disappointment to tho.s«! 

 who had been indulging in the flattering ex- 

 l)ectatioii thai the past long ami intensely 

 cold tt inter had frozen all the iio.\ious insecfji, 

 and that we would enjoy an imnnniity fronj 

 their raviiges the pres^^ut summer. How very 

 simple; just a^ though there had not been 

 noxious in-secls in the world from the very 

 dawn of recorded history, no matter how 

 long and how cold the winters that Intervened. 

 There doubtless are lociil causes through 

 which there may be a depletion or diminution 

 of ins*!ct broods for a single season, or even 

 for a succession of seasons, lulling the people 

 into Security and consequent apathy, from 

 which they are suddenly aroused by a le- 

 dundancy of the noxious hordes; and then 

 they bt^come so confused in the matter that 

 that can scarcely recall an effective remedy, 

 although they may have succeeded in rciwl- 

 ling, circumventing, or destroying them only 

 a year, or perhaps a few months before. It is 

 hardly necessary for us to reproduce here 

 what we and others wrote and published 

 about these worms a year ago, simply because 

 they aie the same destructive enemy to vege- 

 tation 110(0 that they were then. They have 

 not learned or unlearned anything that they 

 then knew, and hence the readers of the 

 Farmer have to only "look up " thcircopies 

 of the former issues of our paper to brighten 

 up their memories on the subject. But ]K;r- 

 haps our journal is not accessible, has been 

 destroyed or lost, or perhaps some ignoble use 

 made of it. If such is the case we are sorry 

 for it, but the responsibility is not due to iw. 

 We endeavor as much as possible to make a 

 permanent record— one that will be as true 

 and a.s n.seful a hundri d years hence as it is at 

 the present time. No, we feel no self- 

 reproach— we feel that our journal will be 

 read a hundred years hence by the posterity 

 of an ancestry that probably does not read it 

 now, nor, for that matter, anything else on 

 the subject. 



Bui it is not only the " Army-worm " tliat 

 is already looming up. The Goo.sel)erry and 

 Currant slugs have been very plentiful and 

 destructive in sundry localities within our 

 county— indeed more uumerous and destruc- 

 tive than they have been known for a series 

 of years. And now comes up a wail that it 

 is " ditto " in regard to the " Colorado Potato 

 Beetle." We some weeks ago enterUiined 

 a|)prehenHions in regard to this pest, for very 

 early in the season we crushed numbers of 

 them on the pavements, in the densely occu- 

 pied parts of Lancaster city. The fact is, 

 practically, that last winter, cold and pro- 

 tracted as it was, was one of the most favor- 

 able to the preservation and transmission of 

 insect life, of any we have had for a number 



