64 
The Australasian Book of Poultry. 
winter; and I would recommend Poultry Farmers in N.S.W., and the other Colonies, to try a house of this 
description. Of course, it would never do for a nesting-house, on account of vermin getting into the thatch ; 
but I hope very few Poultry-keepers now-a-da)'s have their fowl-nests or brooding hens in the fowlhouse. 
Vermin are the greatest trouble we have to contend with. In North Queensland, do what one will, it is 
impossible to avoid being pestered with them to some extent ; the only thiiig is, one can keep them within 
bounds by taking special and continued precautions. During the hot_ season in North Queensland, I have 
seen them so bad that the only thing possible was to burn the fowl-house down. The worst disease known in 
Queensland, is what is commonly called ' warts ' ; I used at one time to think it only chicken-pock in its 
primitive form, and on its original victim, the chicken, and I am still inclined to that idea, though not quite so 
})ositive. The disease I have seen called ' warts ' in the other colonies, is not at all the same. In N.S.W. 
many Fanciers state it is caused by mostjuito bites, but such is not the case in Queensland. It is 
undoubtedly a blood disease of a highly infectious character. In the early stages it is accompanied by 
fever and loss of appetite. I have killed chickens suffering from the disease at this stage, and have found by 
examination with a strong magnifying glass, pocks, spots or warts, not only on the inside lining of the crop, 
but also on the intestines. After the spots develop externally, they apparently disappear internally, as birds 
that have died with the head, eyes, etc. covered with warts, upon being opened, were found to be almost 
free from them internally. Another thing, the chickens that may be nearly blind are, as a general rule, in a 
good state of health otherwise, and will eat well, and even fatten if fed by hand. Apparently there is no 
positive cure, though various remedies advertised do some good at times. The best I know of is the 
colocynth, or bitter apple (the powder), given in the form of pills : — An ounce of colocynth worked up with 
common yellow soap will make about 300 to 320 ])ills, and one or two per day is the dose, according to the 
size and age of the chicken. A small dose or pill of aloes, given alternately with the colocynth, has a still 
better effect than the latter alone, at least such has been my experience lately. For this valuable remedy I 
am indebted to a gentleman in Central Queensland, who was at one time a veterinary surgeon. He has 
never found it fail, except when the weather has been very wet and cold. In the other colonies they cannot 
understand that this disease of warts means an annual loss of thousands of young chickens to the general 
keepers of poultry. In fact, I have known many who gave up trying to rear chickens, preferring to buy 
pullets for layers and cockerels for table use, at an age when all danger of ' warts ' has passed. Warts and 
vermin are our worst trouble, and without them I would guarantee that Queensland would possess the finest 
and largest Poultry Farms, and the Farmer would be able to rear as fine fowls, at a less cost, than any other 
colony in the Australasian group. As conditions are at present, we require a breed of fowls that are close in 
feather and clean legged, so as to offer least opportunities for the lodgment and accumulation of insect pests, 
active in disposition, so as to travel easily and c|uickly in search of insect life, strong in the legs and feet, to 
be able to scratch well and to get into the white ants" nests, found all over the colony, and for the purpose the 
Indian Game seems best. The pity is that the hens of this breed are such indifferent layers. For some 
portions of the year here the fowls require but a trifling amount of artificial food to supply their wants, being 
able to procure such an amount of insect food. I have known my own fowls to refuse grain for weeks 
together while the grasshoppers, caterpillars, and other forms of insect life were plentiful. Directly after the 
big flood in 1896, a plague of caterpillars swarmed through the central districts ; our paddocks were swarming 
with them for over a fortnight. Fowls, ducks, and young turkeys used to come home at night with their 
crops packed, almost to bursting. Fortunately, we do not have a visitation like that often, but for some 
weeks every summer we have the place literally alive with grasshoppers, and there are few parts of the colony 
where one ca?ifiot find a white ants' nest for the chickens every few days. 
For the Duck Farmer there is a big future in Queensland, if he will only utilize the natural resources, 
the big lagoons, swamps and creeks being all full of animal and vegetable life. I believe thousands of ducks 
could be raised at a trifling cost on the big water reserves of the northern portion. At the present time I 
+iave a flock of between twenty and thirty Pekin ducks, that almost live on a lagoon close at hand. Directly 
they are let out in the morning they make off, and do not return till nigh sundown, when they receive their 
