CHAPTER XXXV 



CAUSES OF DISEASE 



Disease has caused more discouragement in the 

 poultry business than any one thing. Much of the 

 pleasure of raising good poultry is lost when the 

 breeder sees one bird after another fall a victim to 

 disease. Disease has dealt the death knell to many 

 ambitions and has been the cause of the retirement 

 of many poultry raisers with otherwise bright futures 

 before them. 



Disease does not come without a cause and in 

 nine cases out of ten this cause is neglect or care- 

 lessness. True, we sometimes find a sick bird in 

 the best regulated flocks, where everything is done to 

 keep the poultry in the best possible condition and 

 where the buildings are constructed on the most up 

 to date, scientific plans. But these cases are excep- 

 tional and the disease, in these cases, never gets 

 much headway. 



The trouble with most inexperienced poultry 

 raisers is their inability to detect disease in its earliest 

 stage, and when they do detect it the malady has a 

 good hold upon the specimen affected ; or perhaps it 

 is of a contagious nature, which means the infection 

 of the pen mates. If amateurs would study their 

 birds more closely and carefully watch their daily 



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