POULTRY DISEASES AND REMEDIES 273 



Venetian red until it has all disappeared from the bottom 

 of the vessel. 



Owners of poultry must provide dust heaps and change 

 the dirt as it seems necessary to do so, using a con- 

 siderable amount of wood ashes with the dust if ob- 

 tainable. Tobacco in nests and whitewash around build- 

 ings help to destroy vermin. Put a little carbolic acid in 

 the whitewash. An occasional fumigation with sulphur is 

 good. There are efficacious insect powders for sale at 

 drug stores. If lice are on the premises rub vaseline or 

 lard on the heads and under the wings of young chickens 

 as a preventive. This or insect powder should also be 

 applied where vermin are observed on the birds. Keep 

 buildings and yards as clean as possible, using consider- 

 able slaked lime on floors and throughout the yard. 



Nor can there be success if poultry is so housed that 

 the birds cannot escape taking cold, the common causes 

 of which are dampness and draughts. The ordinary 

 attacks of cold and influenza develop into various fatal 

 diseases unless they are properly treated. Instead of 

 using the roup remedy, as many do, owners of large 

 flocks ought to keep on hand the following: Prepare a 

 solution of two per cent permanganate of potash, by dis- 

 solving two ounces of the permanganate crystals (bought 

 at any drug store at about thirty cents per pound) in 

 three quarts of water. Keep this solution ready, and 

 when a bird shows the first signs of nose or throat trouble 

 take enough of the solution to allow the head of the fowl 

 to be submerged and put it under until the bird nearly 

 chokes. Remove the bird's head from the liquid and 

 allow it to sneeze and sputter, forcing the liquid into all 

 the air passages. Repeat this three times before you let 

 the bird go, and repeat it twice a day until the fowl no 

 longer shows signs of disease. The operation is simple 

 and in the majority of cases entirely sufficient. Potas- 



