8 THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER.” 
Keeping Poultry Healthy. 
Use lime freely 
Filthy water breeds disease 
Bury dead fowls at once 
Cholera always comes first 
Decaying flesh causes limber neck 
Diarrhea and dirt are twin sisters 
Charcoal is one of the best preventatives of disease. 
A dose of castor oil first thing is a good plan of dosing the 
ailing fowl. 
It will do no harm at any time, and will often effect a 
complete cure if given quickly, 4 
The man who feeds his fowls on any old stuff is bound to 
have a yardful of disease, eee 
When disease appears look first to the management, which is 
almost always to blame. 
A farmer who was losing his hens wrote to Prof Dryden, of 
the Utah Experiment Station, that his hens were dropping dead, 
and asked what was to be done. In reply the professor said to 
never mind; it was a way hens had, some preferred death to the 
treatment they received. There is a moral attached to this little 
answer. 
BEWARE OF CARBOLIC ACID, 
A medical man gives a decided warning against the free use 
of carbolic acid on the poultry. In reply to the query, Would you 
please explain why some people claim that they have had grest 
success in curing diarrhoea in their chicks by the use of earbolic 
acid, when others claim the contrary ? he says— 
As to the wonderful properties of carbolie acid (carbol) I 
shall herewith give for your own benefit and that of all readers 
an extract from the price-crowned vork on War-Surgery by 
Professor Esmarch, M.D., the world-tamed surgeon and professor 
of surgery, a surgeon-general of the first class in the German 
army, and a tember of most of all the important scientific bodies 
of the globe. He says— 
Carbolic acid is a very effective antiseptic. A watery solution 
of 1.100 stops upon longer contact the development of microbes : 
the germ development becomes entirely inhibited, though only 
after a twenty-four hours contact with a concentrated solution of 
5.100. Solution in oil or alcohol are, according to. Prof Koch (the 
famous Cholera-Tubercle Koch), without any antiseptic effect, 
But carbolic acid is very poisonous, and that not on internal use 
only? For even when applied externally in the form of washes, 
compresses, &c., to wounds, abrasions of skin and even the normal 
skin, it is easily absorbed into the system and does (particularly 
in children, but also in those adults who are suffermg from 
cachetic conditions, anemia, kidney troubles, etc.) cause quite 
often very severe symptoms of poisoning, acute (collapse), as well 
as disturbance of digestion, vomiting, maramus. 
It also irritates the skin. particularly when used moist, and 
causes erythema and eczema, otten combined with high fever, and 
strong solutions irritate the surface cf wounds to such an extent 
as to cause severe secretions, yea, even as Lister called it, antisep- 
tic putrefaction. Gangrene ! 
The professor adds “ Carbolic acid is therefore much less used 
now than it was in the days of Lister, when it dominated as an 
antiseptic.” 5 
This was written by one of the foremost authorities in the 
medical world in 1885, has been recognised and acknowlédged as 
true by others, but alas, now after a lapse of twenty years, car- 
bolic acid is still the standby of profession and laity ! 
We have treated this question at particular length because 
the belief in the healing power of carbolic acid is so general 
among the peovle, and its true nature is so little known. We 
must warn our friends of its use, to protect them, their families 
and fowls, which already have to stand so much maltreatment. 
Turkey Raising. 
_ TurKeys are one of the most profitable of all varieties of poultry 
providing the raiser has abundance of range, and can provide the 
birds with plenty of pasture. Itis practicaily decided that raising 
them in close quarters will end in failure, though a few—certainly 
but a small proportion of those who try—have been exceedingly 
successful on small lots. It is also agreed that the moist sea- 
bosrd is not an ideal place for them, and I have heard it said that 
they carnot he raised anywhere in the county of Cumberland in 
New South Wales. But all the same, exceptions crop up to prove, 
or to deny, the rule. Certain itis that our own efforts to raise 
them with similar treatment to that afforded to chickens, have 
been a failure in the coastal districts, and yet when we decided 
that confinement was killing them and let them out to their own 
devices, a goodly number were raised, tae 
if 
Marca 15, 1906 
But we didn’t raise them; they did it themselves. As a 
matter of fact, two days after they were let out they disappeared, 
mothers and all. We thought they were lost. Yet five weeks or 
so after the mother came back with a very fair proportion of;her: 
brood of nice size and overall their troubles. The range on which 
they were raised was dense, sandy scrub and heavily timbered, 
rugged mountain: it teemed with iguanus and other reptiles that 
made chicken raising, even at close quarters, no sinecure. 
Our experience was duplicated by that of a neighbor, and. 
this convinced us that under the surrounding circumstances we 
couldn’t give the turkeys any points in being properly brought 
z The best climate for turkey raising is a dry one: they do 
admirably on our inland plains. The best method of raising them 
is to leave them entirely alone after they get their strength. 
In starting get pure birds, they are so much larger than the 
ordinary kind which have been abused and inbred for generations 
that there is no question as to their superiority as a profitable 
osition. 
Bees good, wel] grown birds: mate one male from seven to 
a dozen females and give them all the range you can. ‘Try and 
encourage them to roost indoors and get them as tame as 
pussible. Provids nice secluded nests or they will choose others of 
their own, Let the turkey hen do her own hatching and the 
s will be better. i : 
ee hon the chicks hatch, place mother and allin a wire- 
covered pen, with a nice coop in the corner, See the wire is too 
small tor the chicks to get through, for they are terrors to stray. 
Feed first on oatmeal, and bread soaked in milk and Ed ueeee 
quite dry. Provide plenty of grit, and give chopped greenstu 
daily. ‘Ihe greenstuff is the life of them, and the best sorts ae) 
common dandelion and chopped onion tops So good is the cen es 
lion that I once heard Be oi breeder say they wil! be successfully 
i herever itis abundant. 
SANG TAKS poults learn to feed out of your hand, and use every 
endeavour to make them tame, This is very important as other- 
wise you will certainly have trouble when you let them loose. . 
After a few days run them on to chicken mixture or a mix- 
ture of finely-cracked grain, but give the mother a morning feed 
of mash and don’t worry if the poults get some of it. After they 
are a week old substitute slats for a part of the wire front, giving 
the youngsters free access to the outside and keeping the mother: 
contined. 
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