178 
American Agriculturist, September 15,1923 
Give a thought 
to &ldvertisuig 
A Barber, a Banker and 
a Circus Spiel 
“po to the circus ?” asked 
^ the cashier of the Bank 
of Fentonville as he dropped 
back in the barber’s chair for 
his Saturday afternoon shave. 
“Yeah; I went a little while 
last night after I closed up. 
Some circus !” 
“ Some circus is right,” said 
the banker, “and it was some 
advertising stunt we pulled. 
You saw our big sign and heard 
the ring-master tell about our 
bank, didn’t you?” 
“Yeah; I saw the sign and 
I heard the spiel. Wouldn’t 
have thought of it again though 
if you hadn’t mentioned it.” 
“Pretty clever stunt we call 
it,” was the banker’s reply. 
“Yeah; clever for the an¬ 
nouncer and sign painter. 
What did it cost you?” the 
barber asked sharply. 
The question popped out so 
unexpectedly that for once 
the banker told the bank’s 
business and admitted proudly 
that the expense* had been $112. 
“Say you! Listen io me!” 
bawled the barber, as he swung 
his lather brush across his 
patron’s face and shut off any¬ 
thing he might have said fur¬ 
ther. “That guy paid $12 for 
the sign and got a hundred 
for shouting three minutes 
twice a day. He does that six 
days a week because he finds 
one in every town. In the 
season he makes more than 
your bank does. You call that 
advertising? You got an idea 
folks at the circus bring any 
money to your bank because 
of a spiel at a three-ring circus ? 
Nothin’ to it! They were 
laughing at clowns or getting 
nervous about the lions. If 
you want to do some adver¬ 
tising, you take your $112 and 
pay the editor of The Bugle 
$2 a week as long as the 
money lasts. Your ads in the 
paper will tell all of those 
people about your bank every 
time they look it over, something 
different every week. It won’t go 
in one ear and out of the other.” 
The barber was quiet for almost 
a minute. The banker was quiet, 
too. He was thinking. The barber 
had told him something. 
Then from the barber, rather 
gently, “Did that fellow deposit the 
$112 in your bank? No? Well, 
whenever you pay the editor’s bills 
he puts the money right back in 
circulation here.” 
“Razor hurt? No? I thought you 
kinda scringed a little.” 
The above little spiel came across 
our desk the other day. It was sent 
out by the New York State School 
of Agriculture at Cornell University. 
It illustrates so well the point that 
something clever is not always good 
advertising, especially the so-called 
“stunt” advertising. We thought it 
so good, we have reproduced it 
for you. 
jddvertising dftTanager 
Putting the Henhouse in Order 
Before the Birds Go Into Winter Quarters Get Rid of Lice and Mites 
I T won’t be many moons and snow 
will be aflying. Even before that 
time we will undoubtedly have some 
cold, wet fall days when it will be 
more comfortable and a great deal 
safer for the birds to be inside, where 
they can scratch in nice clean litter. 
Such being the case, between those 
raw fall days and now, it is a pretty 
good proposition to put the henhouse 
in order—fall housecleaning so to 
speak. It is a pretty good job for this 
time of the year inasmuch as harvest 
is pretty much a thing of the past, 
and makes a tolerably good filler for 
rainy-day work when it is too nasty to 
fill the silo or do fall plowing. 
As long as housecleaning is in order 
it is just as well to do any fixing that 
is needed, such as mending the roof, 
doors, windows and curtains, killing 
two birds with one stone. In fact it 
isn’t a bad idea to take out the 
dropping boards, roosts and nests, be¬ 
cause we have to get in all the cracks 
anyway to spray for lice and mites 
that are in hiding there. 
Lice and mites are really the ones 
that make fall hen¬ 
house cleaning nec¬ 
essary. During the 
summer, with hay¬ 
ing and grain har¬ 
vest and a thousand 
and one other jobs 
that keep a farmer 
busy from daylight 
to dark, lice and 
mites are often over¬ 
looked. It is dur¬ 
ing that time that' 
they multiply rapid¬ 
ly. Now, fall and 
winter eggs bring 
money—but if a hen 
has got to be busy 
fighting lice all day, 
she can’t think a 
great deal about 
laying eggs. And 
during the night— 
the little gray mites 
emerge from their 
hiding places in the 
cracks and crevices 
about the roosts and 
attack Biddy, sucking her blood. The 
blood turns the color of the mite red— 
hence the name, red mite. Biddy gets 
it day and night. 
Spray Must Hit Insects 
The main thing to bear in mind in 
fighting lice is the fact that whatever 
spray material is used, it must be so 
applied that it hits each and every in¬ 
sect. Lice and mites obtain their food 
by sucking, and any aniount of poison 
scattered about will be of no avail. 
The insect must be destroyed by apply¬ 
ing a dust that will clog up the breath¬ 
ing pores on its body or the insect 
must be hit with some chemical that 
will cause its body to corrode. Such 
a spray is called a contact spray. It 
must be applied liberally so that every 
insect will be hit. Halfway measures 
are of no avail, for those insects that 
remain reproduce rapidly and the work 
is for naught. 
There are many commercial prepara¬ 
tions on the market containing chemi¬ 
cals for fighting lice and mites. These 
are especially convenient for the man 
who has little time at his disposal, for 
the man who has an extensive poultry 
plant and must cover a great deal of 
ground in a short time, and for the man 
who is a distance from town and can’t 
run to the store for added quantities 
of ingredients that go .into homemade 
preparations. Most of these com¬ 
mercial preparations are put up in such 
a way that the farm woman who has 
her small flock can easily apply the 
material. These commercially pre¬ 
pared sprays are made up of carbolic, 
creosote or coal-tar products. They are 
advertised quite generally and are uni¬ 
formly good. The companies that ad¬ 
vertise usually speak for themselves. 
There are a number of homemade 
preparations that work admirably. 
There is one we used with complete suc¬ 
cess, and there are others who say they 
have used the same material, recom¬ 
mending it as unsurpassed. The ma¬ 
terial is .nothing more than lubricating 
oil drained from automobile engines. 
By FRED. W. OHM 
Every thousand miles or so the oil 
should be drained from the engine and 
replaced with fresh lubricant. This 
“dead” oil makes a wonderfully contact 
spray to kill lice and mites. 
Of course, not everyone has a car 
and not everyone lives near a garage. 
Garage men usually throw the “dead” 
oil away. If you have a friend who is 
a garage man perhaps he will let you 
have some if you leave a couple of five 
gallon cans at the garage so he doesn’t 
have to store it. 
This material may be applied by 
using a small common bucket spray 
pump. This is a convenient way to 
apply it, for the stream can be directed 
into every nook and corner. If it is too 
thick it may be diluted by adding a 
gallon or so of kerosene. In the ab¬ 
sence of a spray pump it can be applied 
with a brush. Of course it must be ap¬ 
plied liberally in order to get into every 
crack, crevice and corner. Obviously it 
will darken the roosts, dropping boards, 
nests and other parts to which it is 
applied, but the hens won’t mind as 
long as they are free of the lice and 
mites. Another advantage of this ma¬ 
terial is that when the wood is well 
soaked with this oil the insects won’t 
harbor there. 
Some folks use plain kerosene and 
recommend it highly. Others complain 
that it is hard on the man who has to 
spray it. One precaution must be taken 
and that is that no lighted candles, 
lanterns, pipes, cigars or other exposed 
fiame^ should be anywhere around the 
henhouse as the kerosene vapor is 
more or less inflammable. Unless this 
caution is taken there is apt to be a 
fire, and a serious one. Of course, it 
will get rid of the lice and mites, but 
it is a pretty expensive method. 
Another good material is whitewash 
to which crude carbolic acid is added. 
This is made as follows: Slake half a 
peck of lime and dilute it with twenty 
gallons of water; add 1 pound of salt 
previously dissolved in water; to this 
mixture add 2 quarts of crude carbolic 
acid. Apply with a spray pump or 
brush. This mixture if properly put on 
not only kills the mites but destroys 
all their eggs, and will make the house, 
or any building where it is used, fresh 
and clean. 
Rid the Birds of Vermin 
Now, as long as the house is clean 
everything would be fine and the job 
would be finished. But the birds 
also need attention. Unfortunately 
lousy houses make lousy birds. It is 
too bad that clean houses cannot make 
clean birds. Therefore, before the birds 
are placed back on clean roosts, or in 
clean nests, they must be treated with 
louse powders or ointments. Inasmuch 
as lice stay on the fowls nearly all the 
time, the only effective treatments are 
those which are applied directly to the 
birds. 
Sodium fluorid, a powder which can 
be purchased at most drug stores, is a 
most effective remedy. It is applied by 
placing a small amount of the powder 
(as much as can be held between the 
thumb and finger) among the feathers 
next to the skin on the head, neck, 
back, under the wings, on the breast, 
below the vent, and at the base of the 
tail. 
Not more than twelve small pinches 
should be put on one fowl at a time, as 
too much is injurious. One pound of 
powdered sodium fluorid applied in this 
manner will treat 100 fowls. Sodium 
fluorid, if inhaled, is very irritating to 
either fowls or human beings. In fact, 
if too much is inhaled by fowls or 
chicks it may prove fatal. Therefore, 
care should be taken in treating fowls 
to see that it is not inhaled or allowed 
to get into any cuts or wounds in the 
flesh. 
Blue ointment is another effective 
remedy. In using it apply a small por¬ 
tion (a piece about the size of a pea) 
with the fingers around the vent only 
of the fowl, and not on the body or 
under the vent, as it is poisonous and 
injurious. If mercurial ointment (a 
similar preparation) is used instead of 
blue ointment, it should be diluted with 
one-half the quantity of vaseline or 
lard. 
Lice powders of 
various kinds are 
also on the market 
and may be used 
oftentimes with 
good results. These 
lice powders should 
be dusted well into 
the feathers, holding 
the bird’s head down, 
working the powder 
in with the fingers, 
especially under the 
wings and around 
the vent to make 
sure it reaches the 
skin. If all the lice 
are not killed by the 
first treatment, the 
fowls should be 
dusted again in a 
week or ten days 
and as often after¬ 
wards as found nec¬ 
essary. 
Head lice, so called 
because their habits, 
are found on the heads of both chicks 
and mature fowls, but most often on 
young chicks. They are longer and 
more slender than body lice and dark 
brown in color. They are almost al¬ 
ways in greatest number on the top 
of the head, around the ears, and un¬ 
derneath the bill, and are usually 
found with their heads close against 
the skin of the chicks, the body ex¬ 
tending outward. Head lice are very 
injurious. They breed rapidly and pass 
from the mother hen to young chicks 
and from one chick to another, which 
makes it necessary to watch the flock 
carefully in order to keep the chickens 
free from these pests. 
To kill head lice on chicks, a very 
small portion of melted lard or vaseline 
should be applied to the top of the 
head, under the wings and around the 
vent. Care should be taken not to get 
too much grease on the chick, as that 
might prove fatal. 
ADVOCATES MOTHER OF VINE¬ 
GAR IN POULTRY MASH 
C. W. PIERCE 
I see in your issue of April 21 about 
the mother of vinegar being used to 
moisten dry mash to stop hens from 
eating eggs and I also note your 
reply. 
I differ with you in regard to that 
matter. I have used vinegar in dry 
mash for over ten years, and it cer¬ 
tainly will stop hens from eating eggs. 
As soon as I see that they are eating 
eggs I mix them a good feeding of it, 
making it real wet, and feed two or 
three times; that most always stops 
them. If not, I give them some 
more. 
I see that you say you doubt if they 
would eat the vinegar alone. I have 
seen them when fed the mash for the 
first time, if it was real wet, drink 
the vinegar up first, then eat the re¬ 
mainder of the mash. My hens always 
have free range and plenty of fresh 
water. 
A dry, clean, well ventilated house is essential if you want healthy, 
vigorous birds and egg production 
