MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 83 



the writer, can be very easily demonstrated by anyone to his 

 own satisfaction. Take a bird that is covered with lice and ap- 

 ply the powder in the manner just described. After a lapse 

 of about a minute, shake the bird, loosening its feathers with 

 the fingers at the same time, over a clean piece of paper. Dead 

 and dying lice will drop on the paper in great numbers. Any- 

 one who will try this experiment will have no further doubt of 

 the wonderful efficiency and value of this powder. 



For a spray or paint to be applied to roosting boards, nest 

 boxes or walls and floor of the hen houses the following prepa- 

 ration is used : j parts of kerosene and I part crude carbolic 

 acid, 90-95 per cent, strength. This is stirred up when used 

 and may be applied with any of the hand spray pumps or with 

 a brush. 



// 90-95 per cent, crude carbolic acid cannot be obtained 

 cresol may be substituted for it in this paint. 



At the present time very little use of lice powder of any 

 sort is made at the Station. Instead a mercurial ointment is 

 employed when a bird needs individual treatment. After sev- 

 eral years experience we find the ointment to be more satisfac- 

 tory than any powder. The ointment used for this purpose is 

 Ammonia-ted Mercurial Ointment. This is a standard U. S. P. 

 preparation, but as the Pharmacopoeia calls for it to be made 

 with wool- fat or lanolin as a base, and as this is more expensive 

 than other forms of fat equally good for the present purpose we 

 have the druggist make up the ointment exactly as called for 

 by the U. S. P. except that lard is substituted for lanolin. 



In using this ointment a piece about as big as a pea should be 

 well rubbed into the skin under the vent, and a piece of similar 

 size well rubbed in under each wing. In using a mercurial oint- 

 ment always spread it around well, so that the bird cannot eat it. 



NATURAL ENEMIES OF POULTRY. 



One of the chief difficulties that the poultryman has to con- 

 tend with is the continued loss of chicks, and sometimes even of 

 nearly full grown birds, as consequence of the depredations 

 of natural enemies. It is safe to say that the magnitude of the 

 loss from this source is not anything like fully realized by any 

 one who has not kept an accurate account of all his birds. In 



