20 



and cobwebs off the walls, windows and ceiling. Sweep the 

 floor, if you have one. The walls should then receive a gen- 

 erous coat of hot whitewash, put on with a spray pump to save 

 time. A good receipt for whitewash is as follows : Take a 

 sufficient quantity of lime, slack it slowly and wet enough to 

 make into a thick putty. Let it stand in this shape a few hours 

 or a few days, and then reduce it with water to the thickness 

 desired. Add one pint of crude carbolic acid to every 12-quart 

 pailful, and you will have a combination that will be death to 

 lice. Sprinkle the floor with napcreol or some other disinfect- 

 ant, kerosene the roosts, paint the nest boxes with some good 

 lice killer, cover the dropping board with a coat of hot tar in 

 short, give the house a thorough cleaning. 



LICE AND RED MITES. 



Relentless and persistent war must be waged against lice 

 and red mites. The poultryman who keeps his house in the 

 sanitary condition I have described is apt to think that the bat- 

 tle is won, that there is nothing more to do. Such is not the 

 case. The foe is hiding; it is not destroyed. There comes 

 a falling off in egg production, and the poultryman wonders 

 what is the cause. "Lice," says a too candid friend. The poul- 

 tryman waxes indignant. "I'll give you a dollar apiece for 

 every louse you find on my hens !" he exclaims. The friend 

 takes a hen off the nest, and holds her up toward the light. 

 "Pull apart the fluff around the vent," he commands. The 

 poultryman does so, and, lo ! a covey of lice may be seen cutting 

 to cover in the dense jungle of soft feathers. 



Where a big record is desired the hens must not be left to 

 rid themselves of lice by their own efforts, but must be dusted 

 from time to time. The poultryman can make his own insect 

 powder cheaper than he can buy it, but where only a few hens 

 are kept it will not pay him to do so. Lambert's "Death to 

 Lice" and Cyphers Lice Powder are standard preparations. If 

 the poultryman wishes to make his own powder here are two 

 formulas that may be depended upon : 



1. Take one pint of slacked lime and stir into it one ounce 

 liquid carbolic acid. Add to this mixture three pounds finely 

 ground tobacco and mix thoroughly. This powder dusted 

 wherever lice are will kill them. 2. Take five pounds strong 

 tobacco dust, one pound airslacked lime, one-half pound naph- 

 thalene mix well together. This is sure death to hen lice, 

 plant lice, lice on cattle, sheep ticks, bedbugs, ants, moths, etc. 



