POULTRY AND LARGE BIRDS. 373 
Pure, cool, fresh water or milk is the best to drink. Foul, stagnant, 
and impure water of every kind is to be avoided, as it has an injurious in- 
fluence upon the whole digestive system, with a peculiar tendency to pro- 
duce or invite diarrhcea, cholera, and the like. Even rain-water is some- 
times made unwholesome by an exposure of twenty-four hours to the air, a 
fact which calls for a frequent change of water. 
The main object in poultry-raising being to supply the table with 
meat and eggs, it is strange that so little pains is taken to guard the 
food and drink. If the flock is allowed to eat and drink any and every 
thing that is within reach, the flesh and eggs will be as certainly 
vitiated in quality as that the milk of the cow is tainted by the use of 
improper food. Still further, if poultry eat the flesh, blood, milk, urine, 
or droppings of cattle or other animals which are suffering from ma- 
lignant diseases, such as anthrax and foot and mouth disease, the flock 
will be afflicted with the same or similar diseases, with the alternative 
risk of dying or imparting the malignant affection to those who eat 
their flesh and eggs. 
Miscellaneous Notes——Among the miscellaneous sources of injury 
to health may be mentioned nervous excitement incident to public 
shows, a boisterous manner of an attendant about the inclosures, the 
trepidation incident to catching, the approach of hawks, dogs and other 
animals. Such fright and confusion should be sedulously avoided. Too 
close confinement tends to general disorder and is favorable to the de- 
velopment of feather-eating and other vices. Blooded animals are more 
often subjected to such confinement than others. Hot weather long con- 
tinued lowers the tone of the system and thus exposes the fowl to 
debilitating affections of the bowels in particular. Excessively dry 
weather is also weakening, and severe cold is unfavorable to the en- 
joyment of normal health. Skin diseases are engendered by snow lying 
on the ground along time, perhaps because it deprives the fowls of their 
chances for dusting, when the indoor dust-box is lacking. The presence 
of a too vigorous male partner may cause debility in the female and inter- 
fere with the maturing of the egg. The unusual demand made upon the 
digestive organs during the period of moulting, in consequence of the growth 
of the new feathers, calls for special treatment, and such is given in 
the pages devoted to diseases. The general “running-out” of a flock in 
the barn-yard, as well as in the inclosure of the fancier, is doubtless often 
due primarily to in-and-in breeding, by which one family that is kept alone 
declines by an invariable law of nature. Though apparently favorable 
results may be experienced for a time, the inevitable degeneracy will 
eventually become manifest. 
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