PARASITES CAUSE HEAVY LOSSES 269 



he gets no eggs, his poultry does not sell well because it 

 is poor, and his young chicks die. Such a man says there 

 is no profit in the poultry line, and indeed there is none 

 for him. 



Cleanliness is one of the greatest aids in bettering this 

 condition, for these parasites breed in the filth and dirt. 

 Give the house a thorough cleaning. Burn the old litter 

 and nests, scrape the floors clean, paint the roosts and nest 

 boxes, and spray the walls and floor with crude carbolic 

 acid and coal oil. 



Put insect powder on the fowls, grease their heads, and 

 dip their feet and legs in coal oil. It will be time well 

 invested. 



The hens will help you in this work of extermination, 

 if you will see that they are kept supplied with a good 

 dust bath. Mix ashes with the dirt for the bath. All this 

 may seem like a great deal of trouble, but success is never 

 attained in any business without painstaking care and 

 faithful work. 



In the matter of diet, the first thing needed is water, 

 and it must not be chilly. Some coarse, clean sand should 

 be placed in the water each time, or in some shallow vessel 

 near the feed or water. They need both grit and water 

 while eating. 



Hens that have been confined closely for months, and 

 have been laying in the winter months, or that are poorly 

 fed, and are kept in dirty houses, where lice and mites 

 prevail, cannot produce healthy eggs, and will produce 

 only poor, weakly chicks. 



