CHAPTER XV. 



SALAD AND DRESSING. 



Never get too old to learn. 



About as many failures in the poultry business come from 

 keeping 100 fowls where there is room for only 25, as from any 

 other source. 



Sitting hens should not be allowed to dust in coal ashes, as the 

 fine particles clog the pores in the egg shells. Dry earth is the 

 best stuff for a sitting hen to dust in. 



Kainit may be substituted for plaster to mix with the manure 

 in case a manure particularly rich in potash is wanted, and acid 

 phosphate may be substituted for a rich phosphatic manure. 



It is a good plan for a poultryman to keep a few standard 

 remedies on hand all the time. Then if disease comes down upon 

 him like the wolf on the fold, he is in a measure prepared to 

 meet it. 



Lice multiply upon a sick fowl, because its vitality is so 

 depleted that it cannot keep itself clean. Accordingly, when you 

 remove a sick fowl to the hospital for treatment give it a good 

 dusting with insect powder before you administer the medicine. 



Introduce new blood from time to time, but do not introduce 

 it indiscriminately. Find a man who is working along the same 

 lines with yourself, and get your males from him. Breed in two 

 years, and the third year send away to the same man for more 

 males. 



Green ground bone is a grand food for fowls, but it must be 

 fresh and not fed in too great quantity. A correspondent writes 

 that she lost 77 out of a flock of 94 beautiful chicks in three weeks 

 by feeding ground bone that she bought of a local dealer. Prob- 

 ably the bone was tainted, or she fed too much. 



RATS. Rats are naturally granivorous, and prefer corn to 

 anything else. The poultryman should take advantage of this 

 fact. Let him scatter a handful of whole corn about each rat 

 hole, and the rat will not molest the chicks. It may seem rather 

 expensive to feed rats on corn, but it is not so expensive as it is to 

 feed them on chicken meat. The poultryman should keep his 

 eye peeled and his traps set for the rascals at the same time. 



