A GUIDE FOR KEEPERS OF POULTRY 299 
suffering from the disease appeared weak and epileptic. 
Death usually came suddenly with convulsions. 
Birds suffering from tapeworm should be isolated and 
their droppings destroyed or treated with a disinfectant. 
There seems to be no certain method of diagnosing this 
disease except the finding of segments of the worms in 
the droppings. 
TESTING EGGS OUT OF INCUBATORS.—It is 
necessary to test eggs out of an incubator in order to 
prevent the contamination of good ones from the bacteria 
that begin to infest eggs with dead germs in them. If 
these bacteria do not entirely destroy the life of the 
good eggs they frequently weaken the germs to such a 
degree that the chicks hatched from such exposed eggs 
come out weak and incapable of growing into a vigorcus 
maturity. 
TESTING EGGS FOR FRESHNESS.—Dr. Wiley of 
the Department of Agriculture says if one cup of salt 
be dissolved in 10 cups of water and a perfectly fresh egg 
put into the solution it will sink. After a day or two the 
egg will not sink so far and it continues to lie higher in 
the water until an egg two weeks old lies well up on the 
surface. 
TRAPNESTS.—Trapnests show which hen lays the 
egg. They are the only things that show without mis- 
take just which hens lay enough to make a profit and 
which ones do not pay for the feed they eat. If any 
poultryman will use a trapnest a year he will learn some 
astonishing things about his hens. He may find he has 
hens that lay 200 or more eggs in a year and others, seem- 
ingly just as good, that lay only a few eggs in a year. 
By selecting the best layers and selecting their best 
daughters, always breeding from a male that is from a 
