DISEASES OF POULTRY. 



201 



so of blood, which induces the fowls to pluck 

 for the blood contained in them ; and we knew 

 it to be kept up till some individuals of the 

 flock, who were made special victims, were al- 

 most entirely denuded of their feathers, and 

 sometimes have even had their entrails torn 

 out. 



The best preventives are animal food, such as 

 bones (not burnt), oyster-shells, charcoal, and 

 fresh meat, with clean water, and clean apart- 

 ments. Sometimes a particular fowl shows a 

 more inveterate disposition to eat feathers than 

 the rest of the flock. It is best to kill or remove 

 such. 



In a letter read before the British Associa- 

 tion, from M. Sace, of Neufchatel, Switzerland, 

 giving an account of some experiments in the 

 feeding cf domestic fowls, he informs us that 

 some hens, fed upon barley alone, would not 

 lay well, and that they tore off each other's 

 feathers. He then mixed with the barley some 

 feathers, chopped up, which they ate eagerly, 

 and digested freely. By adding milk to the 

 food, they began to lay, and ceased plucking 

 out each other's feathers. He concludes, that 

 this proceeding arose from the desire of the 

 hens for azote food. 



WHITE COMB. 



"This disease," say the authors of the "Poul- 

 try Book," "makes its first appearance in the 

 form of small white spots on one or both sides 

 of the comb of the cock, which are so thickly 

 clustered together as to be sometimes mistaken 

 for a sprinkling of meal or other white powder. 

 It seems to be of a scorbutic, or leprous na- 

 ture a form of disease to which all animals of 

 Eastern origin are particularly liable. It is a 

 disease to which the Shanghai is constitution- 

 ally subject ; although we have heard of its ex- 

 istence in birds exposed to irregular diet and 

 want of cleanliness. The disease should be at- 

 tacked as soon as it makes its appearance. The 

 consequences of neglect are related in the fol- 

 lowing communication, with the appropriate 

 remedy : 



"The disease is not confined to the combs 

 only, but spreads itself down the neck, both in 

 front and back, and takes off all the feathers as 



far as it goes, leaving the stumps. I saw a bird 

 very lately, with his neck and breast entirely 

 stripped of feathers, but the stumps all left, so 

 that no hope of their return can be entertained 

 until the time of moulting. 



" Now to the remaining question, ' How can it- 

 be cured ?' By applying cocoa-nut oil and tur- 

 meric. This simple remedy has been tried with 

 perfect success. No other oil but that of the 

 cocoa-nut seems to answer the purpose. The 

 proportions are about a quarter of an ounce of 

 turmeric powder to one ounce of cocoa-nut oil. 

 The latter, at an ordinary temperature, is solid, 

 and very much resembles spermaceti ; but it 

 easily blends with the turmeric, and forms a 

 yellow ointment. Three or four applications, 

 with a day's interval between each, will usually 

 be found effectual." 



M. Tegetmeier suggests the separation of 

 the sick bird, a plain, unstimulating, whole- 

 some diet say of oatmeal and water, with a 

 supply of green vegetables and the administra- 

 tion of some alterative medicine : as flour of 

 sulphur ten grains, and calomel one grain, given 

 every other night ; or a three-grain Plummer's 

 pill might be given instead. The plumage will 

 not often reappear until next moulting-time. 



VEKMIN LICE. 



The whole feathered tribe seem to be pecul- 

 iarly liable to be infected with lice ; and there 

 have been instances where fowls have been so 

 covered in this loathsome manner, that the nat- 

 ural color of the feathers has been undistin- 

 guishable. 



Mascall says, "They get them in scraping 

 abroad among foul straw, or on dunghills, or 

 when they sit in nests not made clean, or in the 

 hen-house, by their dung lying long there, which 

 corrupts their bodies and breeds lice and fleas." 



The presence of vermin is not only annoying 

 to poultry, but materially interferes with their 

 growth, and prevents their fattening. In tri- 

 fling cases, no particular attention is requisite ; 

 but when the cases are bad, the fowls should 

 be removed from the rest. 



A writer in the Cultivator recommends mix- 

 ing sulphur with Indian-meal and water, and 

 feed in the proportion of one pound of sulphur 



