May 1, 1901.1 Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist " 
803 
at night in the open air with only a shelter of 
bark over their heads. There is practically no 
cure for the disease. 
Bkoxchitis. — Young chickens often develop 
this disease in wet weather, which can generally 
be cured, if taken in time, by removal of the 
affected chicks to warm quarters and feeding 
them on soft food only, with mustard, ginger, or 
hot spice added to it. Give them also a tea^poon- 
ful of glycerine twice a day.' 
Roup".— Roup is one of the highly contagious 
diseases, and is mostly communicated to healthy 
birds by the medium of the drinking trough, 
One sick bird will by this means infect a whole 
flock. The disease is easily recognised, as the 
bird's head swells and a foul discliarge proceeds 
from the eyes and nostrils. When the disease 
has made great headway, it is safest to kill the 
bird, because a disgusting fungus has grown in 
the throat, giving rise to the term "diphtheric 
roup." It is then very dangerous and is commu- 
nicable to children. The remedies are given in 
most publications devoted to poultry. Isolate the 
affected birds ; disinfect all their roosts, nests, 
and houses ; destroy or at least thoroughly cleanse 
with disinfecting fluid all drinking and feeding 
utensils, and for some time afterwards add a little 
Stockholm tar to the drinking water. As for 
the affected fowls, bathe their heads frequently 
■with hot water and Condy's fluid. Use a syringe 
to clean the nostrils and throat, injecting a 
solution of bluestoue and warm water, sufficient 
bluestone to turn the water pale-blue. Be sure 
to prevent the bird swallowing any quantity of 
this as it is a poison. On first observing the 
symptoms of roup, give the bird a dose of Epsom 
salts. Afterwards the best treatment is a pill 
containing two grains of quinine, morning and 
night. The only certain way to prevent the 
reappearance of dissase is to kill the affected 
birds and thoroughly cleanse and disinfect the 
house and runs. 
Scaly Legs.— The cause of scaly leg.s is a kind 
of mite which burrows into the skin and causes 
white scales to appear. Same recommend kero- 
sene as a remedy, but this is too severe ; birds 
often become lame trom its application. The 
best way is to soak the legs in warm water for 
five minutes, and then rub them with a stiff brush 
to break the scabs. Then rub in a mild arsenical 
■wash, or sulphur ointment made of ten p irts 
lard, three parts sulphur, and one part crystal- 
lised carbolic acid. Usually one application will 
suffice, and a cure will be had in three or four 
days. 
Lice.— Fowls are infested by four genera and 
about twenty species of bird-lice. The best treat- 
ment for the bird is the dust bath and thorough 
spraying with powdered sulphur and tobacco dust 
for the house. Here a hot kerosene emulsion is 
most effective. Thoroughly spray all the roosts 
and boxes. Eemope the droppings at least once 
a week. Lice breed in the droppings. The dust 
bath should be made either in a hollow in the 
crround or in a roomy enclosure made of three 
sheets of galvanised iron. Put a quantity of dry 
road dust in this, mixed with wood ashes and a 
little tobacco, dust. The object of the bath is to 
destroy the insect parasites. As these do not 
breathe through the head but through the pores 
in the b?dy, the dust chokes the pores and the 
insects die. 
Gapes. — The gape-worm {Syngamus treacliealis ) 
is the most destructive of all tho parasites of 
poultry.- It infests the wii:dpipe and bronchi of 
most land birds, but never of water fowl. The 
symptoms are the well-known gaping cough or 
sneeze. The bird seems about to choke. 
Treatment — First remove all the healthj' birds 
to some other place ; then kill all the badly 
infested birds and burn them. If you bury them, 
earthworms will find and eat the eggs of the 
parasite and convey the disease to other fowls. 
Then thoroughly disinfect the pens and yards by 
sprinkling with a diluted solution of sulphuric 
acid (two or three pints to 25 gallons of water). 
If acid is not procurable, use kainit or air-slaked 
lime, and dust the yards liberally with it. Then 
give one teaspoonful of turpentine and one of 
assafo?tida in a warm bran mash to each 25 birds 
A pill of camphor, the size of a wheat 
grain, pushed down the throat has often given 
good results. Another good remedy is to remove 
the fluff from a small feather, except the tip. 
Moisten this with turpentine or kerosene, aiil 
carefully push it down the windpipe, twisting it 
round. It will kill all the worms it touches, 
but cannot reach those in the lower bronchial 
passages. Turpentine and assafojtida in the food 
soon load the fowl's breath with ther fumes, and 
so kill all the worms in the lower as well as in 
the upper passages. For drink, give the birds a 
solution, of salicylic acid — one-third ounce to a 
quart of water. — Queensland Agricultural Jour- 
nal. 
[We have succeeded in stamping out fowl-cholera 
by the liberal external use of Jeye's disinfectant 
and giving the birds camphoraied water, i.e., drink- 
ing water in which a piece of camphor is kept 
soaking. — Ed. A.M.I 
-> 
BACTERIA AND THE DA IKY, 
{By II. Potts, Dairy Expert, Department 
of Agriculture, Victoria.) 
{Concluded.) 
Milk from a healthy cow, and taken under 
suitable conditions of cleanliness, is free from 
germ life. During the process of milking, as 
daily practised at our cow sheds, organisms of 
various kinds fall into the milk through the 
medium of the germ laden dust of the shed, tha 
cow's body, the dirty clothes or hands of the 
milker, the swish of the cow's tail, or the invisible 
dirt left in the bucket. The most common variety 
in a cowshed is the bacillus Deilus lacticus or 
lactic acid producing bacteria. They are single 
cells rodlike in shape, and so small that it 
requires 20,000 to form a line an inch lo'i„'. or 
about 400.000,000 to cover a penny postag • np, 
and hence invisible to the naked eye. Milk is a 
most suitable media for their propagation. Of 
necessity they must be provided with three con- 
ditions to encourage their growth — suitable food, 
moisture, and temperature, In milk as it leaves 
