FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
which day after day grows in interest as it grows in life? 
It may be a favorite fruit tree, a melon-patch; or it may be 
a dog, arabbit, a pair of doves, or some pet fowls. What- 
ever it may be, let the boy or the girl have undisputed pos- 
session and ownership. Will not the boy cherish it? Ah! 
how I remember the Shanghai fever of years ago and the 
interest I took in it. I was a boy of nine or ten, and when 
my brother presented me with a pair of snow-white ones I 
think I was one of the happiest boys in the world. Day 
after day I worked with dull hatchet and saw, shaping and 
fitting up a sugar-hogshead as their coop, and then as care- 
~ fully and patiently built about it a fence. Both the coop 
and the fence were original, nay, uncouth in design, but 
then the work was my own, and I looked on it with no little 
pride. And that first egg; yes, that first clutch of eggs; 
how eagerly I waited till I found a proper nest and a care- 
ful mother to whose care to intrust them. And then all the 
weary watching and waiting, till the eggs should chip, and 
when nine little downy balls of snow rolled from the shells 
and began to cheep; I doubt if there was a prouder and 
happier boy to be found anywhere. Why, the receipt of 
my annual salary, while it may give me greater permanent 
satisfaction, never gave me half the pleasure I experienced 
as I lifted that hen with her nine little chicks from the nest 
and carried her to a coop prepared for her. And then, 
again, when I could not get a hatching-hen at home, haven’t 
I carried my eggs for miles to some farmer’s wife, who 
promised to lend me one for the time being? Nor was my 
experience as a boy in any way different from that of other 
boys under similar circumstances. ; 
Can you find a boy anywhere prouder than the one who 
drives his span of goats down the street, or makes old Carlo 
haul him round the yard? But, beyond this, your boys or 
girls will still more gladly accept and care for such pets as 
pigeons or fowls; pets which, while they give them great 
pleasure, will at the same time yield them a substantial 
profit when properly cared for. And, by all means, permit 
_ them to glean the profits for themselves. It will teach them 
business, and they will love their homes all the better. 
Give your little folks pets, and teach them to love and cher- 
ish their homes above all other places on earth. 
Are Nia Lvs 
Lock HAVEN, Pa. 


Correspondence. 
(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
How many pigeons may be successfully kept in a loft 
10 x 14 feet, and well lighted? Should they be confined to 
one variety? or would it be safe to keep two or three varie- 
ties in such a place, providing they were properly mated 
before putting them in the loft? What varieties bear con- 
finement best, as it is unsafe to fly them in this locality ? 
Rardien bl. 
WATERTOWN, N. Y., Jan. 7, 1874. 

<_ 

New YorRK, January 8, 1874. 
Mr. Jos—epH M. WADE. 
Dear Sir: In your valuable journal of the 8th instant, 
I noticed an article by your correspondent, J. G., in which 
the writer speaks of tobacco as being a fine agent as the 
destroyer of the lice on pigeons. Permit me to say, as a 
sufferer from the above infliction, that I have used tobacco, 
well dusted on the birds and in the nests, with the greatest 


57 
success, and in my opinion there is no better destroyer of 
the insects so common to pigeons. Last summer my birds 
were infested with the small red lice, and had they not been 
taken in hand in good time, lerge numbers of young birds 
would have been lost, by the lice getting in their ears. I 
tried everything for their extermination that I could think 
of, and, as a last resort, turned to tobacco; and, after reduc- 
ing it to a fine dust, spread it on the birds and nests with a 
generous hand, and in an instant the bugs were running in 
alldirections. I then followed the matter up by having the 
coop well whitewashed, and have not seen up to this time a 
single insect, having effectually put a stop to one of the 
pigeons’ greatest enemies. 
Yours truly, B. 

—_ 

MILLERSBURG, PA., December 31, 1873. 
Jos. M. WaDE. 
Dear Srr: The Fanciers’ Journal and Poultry Exchange 
is a decided ‘“‘hit.’? Please find inclosed $2.50, for which 
send it to my address for one year. 
Permit me through the columns of the same to say some- 
thing about the advice which is sometimes given by persons 
who have not tried the remedies which they propose. I 
heard or read that coal oil is just the thing to kill lice on 
fowls. I tried it with the following results: It surely killed 
lice, but it also killed a valuable rooster, and crippled two 
hens, so that I was tempted to kill them, in order to rid 
them of their suffering. 
Now it does seem to me necessary to warn all interested 
| not to employ such a remedy to destroy lice in cases where 
animal life must be sacrificed, which they also wish to pre- - 
serve. 
I find tobacco to be far better, and not so injurious to the 
fowls. He A. Nuirz. 
Norzt.—We have no doubt that tobacco is a better and 
safer remedy than coal oil, excepting the latter is used with 
skill and care. We presume that those who have tried coal 
oil with success forgot to state how it should be used. It is 
necessary to mix with it a larger proportion of lard or other 
oil, and then employ the mixture with discretion. It is one 
of the best cures that we know of for scurvy legs. 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
Epiror Pouttry Fancier: An account of how Carlie, 
Eddie, and their papa spent the first hour of daylight in the 
New Year, may not be inappropo to the object of your paper. 
The engrossing pleasures and labors of the last week of 
the old year, had induced the neglect of our usual daily 
attention to the poultry-house; but on New Year’s morning 
we determined it should have a thorough cleansing, and be 
put in readiness to receive New Year’s calls, and to make a 
respectable entre upon 1874. We ought here to give you 
an idea of our somewhat unique poultry-house. In a future 
paper we will endeavor to give you some descriptive draw- 
ings of it, without which only a very imperfect notion of 
the structure can be given. Suffice it for the present, that 
the house consists of three parts: the day, or living-room, 
the chamber, and the hall. ; 
The first is quite a large apartment, and is promenade, 
sitting-room, and dining hall combined. Between this apart- 
ment and the hall, and extending the whole length of the 
building, excepting a small space for a door, is first on the 
floor, a row of movable nest-boxes, each with a small open- 
ing on the side next to the hall, and a large one on the side 
