FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
437 
cried, “survive or perish, I don’t give up the ship.” What 
outsiders were doing was none of her business ; she was too 
busy keeping the beams out of her own eye to look after the 
motes in the eyes of other people. What thoughts may 
have passed through her mind ? Perhaps she whistled as 
she went for want of thought. Who knows? How her 
mother’s heart trembled! “What!” she cried, “must I 
lose all my chickens by that dam — ? ” If she could have 
sung, no doubt she would have clucked to herself some 
ancient lay. Until the barrel was stove she would not deny 
to herself the comfort of a stave. 
“Give me but what that bar’l-lioop bound, 
Take all the rest the sun goes round.” 
Or something else appropriate. Our hen was carried five 
miles. At length the Fates, snubbed and disappointed, beat 
the barrel ashore and left it high and dry. What did the 
hen do? Did she jump out and crow, and cackle over her 
ride like a man? Did she scratch off a letter to Barnum 
offering to show herself? No! She just went on minding 
her own business, and, in due time, she hatched out every 
one of her seventeen eggs. Oh, fowl most fair! How 
meekly didst thou bear thy yoke! Many hens have done 
excellently, but thou excellest them all. Ex. 
DOCTORING FOWLS. 
About this season of the year a general complaint is 
prevalent of sick or diseased fowls. Cholera in some por- 
tions of the country seems to make annual depredations, and 
diarrhoea, &c , &c., depopulate, to a sad extent, the flocks of 
many fanciers. Doubtless many valuable fowls '■'■■might 
have been" permitted to still live had they been “doctored” 
with more discretion, and a little less medicine. Cholera 
in some instances is perhaps brought on by feeding bad corn. 
Much of the corn that is offered in market has many grains 
with the germ black. Such corn comes from a cob more or 
less mildewed, and necessarily will affect flocks fed upon it. 
Other cases of this disease are evidently originated by the 
fowls too freely partaking of green food other than grass. 
In this portion of the country, cholera appears in the “ hot ” 
season. In slow digesting food, unless perfectly good, there 
is more or less danger of decomposition taking place before 
digestion. I am rather inclined to think want of sufficient 
care and forethought in feeding has been the cause of many 
cases of cholera. It is too often considered that “ anything 
is good enough for the chickens .” The very best food is the 
cheapest always. 
In “doctoring,” many give the medicine they judge the 
case requires, and let them run as usual. Prescriptions nor 
medicines will not avail much unless given properly, and in 
all cases the fowl should be cooped or shut up alone; by 
doing this the diet of the patient is entirely at your control. 
Dosing with medicine, and then allowing them to run at 
large, is like calling a youngster (who is suffering with a 
green apple grumbling ache) in from the orchard, and wiv- 
ing him a “dose” for it, and then let him find his way 
back for more. Do not doctor blindly, but try and discover 
what is the matter, and then wait long enough for the med- 
icine to act before you give something else. 
A gentleman of our acquaintance once had a sick Light 
Brahma; he gave her a dose of sweet oil; castor oil; some 
tincture of iron; red pepper tea; teaspoonful of ale, one of 
coal oil, and one of alum water— all in one forenoon; but 
you must know she was very sick — “ and yet that hen was not 
happy,” but was contrary enough to up and die. He remarked 
he “could not imagine what ailed her, but if she had only 
had the diarrhoea , I know I could have cured her.” His 
remark reminded me of an old time doctor who was called 
to see an ill child, and, after pulse-feeling and numerous 
questions, raising his spectacles, said he could not tell exactly 
what was the matter with the child, but that he could give 
it some medicine that would throw it into fits. He “ was 
death on fits." We have known some very severe cases of 
cholera cured, by giving a teaspoonful of saturated solution 
of alum water and paregoric (equal quantities of each 
mixed) three times a day; and feeding on bread soaked in 
milk (boiled). Plenty of fresh water, and occasionally 
mixing flour of sulphur with the feed (once in three or 
four weeks), is better than remedies which will be subse- 
quently needed, if the above is not observed. Notice 
your fowls every feeding time, and if one appears droopy 
or unwell, remove.it at once, and in nine cases out of 
ten, a change of diet, and rest from being worried by 
the others, is all the medicine it will require. The above 
ground may have been gone over before, but there are so 
many new ones just beginning to fancy blooded fowls, that 
I conclude to some, at least, this hastily written article will 
not be amiss. G. O. Brown. 
Brooklandville, Md. 
CONCERNING TAILS. 
Why should the tail of the Leghorn, of whatever variety, 
be a “ squirrel tail ? ” This fashion seems to have been set 
in Connecticut within the past few years. It was not re- 
quired by the standard, and, to my eye, is neither as pretty 
nor as appropriate, as the tail the standard calls for, viz. : 
“ Large and full, carried very upright; sickle feathers long 
and well curved” (Am Standard of Excellence, 1873). I 
think there is quite a difference between an upright, even 
though it be “ very upright,” and a squirrel tail. In the 
latter, the sickle feathers stand forward, in some instances 
nearly or quite reaching the head, with almost or indeed no 
curve at all. I cannot see the advantage of breeding this 
style of tail. To my notion, the best Leghorns I have seen 
were not thus bred, and the best illustrations I have seen 
certainly did not represent them with squirrel tails. There 
may be some reason for breeding them in this way, but 1 
fail, as yet, to see it. If it be simplj' a matter of fancy, let 
it be so understood ; tastes differ, and I prefer the standard 
to the squirrel tail. 
The squirrel tail gives the appearance of too light and sharp 
a rump ; it suggests too much of “ peakedness ” in the hinder 
part of the fowl. It moreover suggests too much friskiness 
and instability of character. A cock with a tail like this 
strutting about a yard is the very embodiment of a “ swell.” 
It takes all the gravity and dignity from a fowl to put that 
sort of a tail on him. I claim that we should not violate the 
principles of correct taste in these small matters. If I were 
to have a choice of two cocks, equal in other respects, one 
having a large full tail, well spread, with long, well arched 
sickle feathers, and the other a squirrel tail of the most ex- 
treme kind, I should take the former, and I think that would 
be the choice of the majority. If the breeding of the squirrel 
tail is nothing but a mere whim, it should be discouraged, 
as it detracts from the appearance and character of one of 
our most beautiful and useful breeds. If those who breed 
them with the frisky tail have any good reason for doing so, 
will they be good enough to state them for the information 
of a Leghorn Breeder. 
Doylestown, Pa., June 27, 1874. 
