IX 



HOW TO PREVENT DISEASE 



The Difficult Disease Problem — Cutting Off the Sources 



— Common Percentages of Loss — The Vital Question 



— Active Agencies of Prevention — Analogy Between 

 Man and Lower Animals — Exercise — Patent Feeders 



— Ventilation — Disinfection — Patent Cures — White 

 Diarrhoea 



The " Disease Problem " is one of the most difficult 

 of ail his puzzles, for the Beginner. It is usually far 

 more difficult for a man than for a woman poultry 

 keeper, since she finds it rather easy to relate her 

 knowledge of human, physical ills, to those of the out- 

 door friends under her care. Since the puzzle is such 

 a difficult one, and often so endless in its various forms, 

 it is quite the part of good sense to inquire whether 

 there be not some way to cut off the physical ills of 

 fowls at their source. 



It might be rather shocking for me to affirm, outright, 

 that this source is, for the most part, man himself. But 

 it is quite largely true, because most of the ills of poul- 

 trydom are ills relating to unnatural conditions. And 

 the birds cannot apply the remedies which instinct 

 would suggest, because they are not free agents. We 

 might look at a single fact concerning man himself, to 

 find whether or not he is fitted to deal rightly with fowls 

 in matters pertaining to health. One of the most widely 

 experienced physicians and surgeons of our day, Dr. J. 



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