MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 77 



allow teams to pass close to the open doors of the pens for 

 cleaning out worn material and delivering new bedding, and 

 also allow attendants to enter and leave all pens from the out- 

 side walk and reach the feed room without passing through 

 intervening pens. 



LICE. 



One of the most difficult and trying problems which the poul- 

 try keeper has to meet is that of keeping his poultry houses and 

 stock reasonably free from lice, mites and other external para- 

 sites. There are many proprietary preparations on the 'market 

 designed to accomplish this end in one way or another. Most 

 of these preparations are, in proportion to their efficiency, very 

 expensive. Many of them have been tried at the Maine Experi- 

 ment Station. The Station has finally, however, come to follow 

 the procedure outlined in this circular to the exclusion of all 

 others, and with results which are extremely satisfactory. In- 

 deed, it may be said that vermin on the poultry or in the houses 

 no longer cause any appreciable annoyance in the work of the 

 Station plant. 



The routine method which the Station uses in handling its 

 stock with reference to the lice problem is as follows : 



All hatching and rearing of chickens is done in incubators and 

 brooders. The growing chickens are never allowed to come into 

 any contact whatever with old hens. Therefore, when the 

 pullets are ready to go into the laying houses in the fall they are 

 free from lice. Sometime in the late summer, usually in Au- 

 gust or early in September, the laying houses are given a thor- 

 ough cleaning. They are first scraped, scoured and washed 

 out with water thrown on the walls and floor with as much pres- 

 sure as possible from a hose. They are then given two thorough 

 sprayings, with an interval of several days intervening, with a 

 solution of cresol such as is described on page 7. Then the 

 roosting boards, nests, floors and walls to a height of about 5 

 feet are thoroughly sprayed with the lice paint (kerosene oil 

 and crude carbolic acid). Finally, any yearling, or older birds, 

 whether male or female, which are to be kept over for next 

 year's work are given two or three successive dustings, at in- 



