444A QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 June, 1899. 
lived there, the droppings almost blocking up the whole space right up to the 
roosts. The unfortunate turkeys were in a deplorable condition, being positively 
alive with what the men took to be large lice. I had never seen anything like 
them; they were nearly as long as my finger-nail, of a grey colour, and the 
smaller ones were soft, but when older and full grown they had a hard shell. 
Now I feel convinced that they were the so-called poultry tick. Three or four 
of the birds I personally examined had bunches and clusters of nits under the 
wings, in the hollows of the shoulders, and on the side of the legs, and they had 
even worked under the skin and were in little blobs or cists, which burst when 
squeezed, and let a swarm of horrible, wicked-looking slimy lice free. I had 
never seen or heard of anything like it before, nor have I since, and my advice 
to the old man was to kill and burn every feather, as well as the house. 
Naturally, he demurred at this, and explained that one lot of thirteen young 
birds were not so bad. So I then suggested fumigating them with sulphur in a 
close box, and by way of showing him how to do it I assisted with a couple of 
the birds. The box we used was old and full of cracks, and well-nigh useless 
for keeping the fumes in, but, bad as it was, the fumigating, even in such a 
manner, was a revelation. Before the turkey was half the 7 minutes in the 
fumes the box was literally and absolutely a mass of swarming vermin of all 
sizes, varieties, and conditions, proving that the birds could be cleansed with a 
little trouble. How many he actually did save I never heard, but I was told 
that he killed and burned the greater part of his flock as being too far gone to 
be worth treating. This is the treatment I would advise, now, for each bird. 
Tt will be far and away superior to any dip, and especially if sulphur 
be also given to the fowls in their food two or three times a week. 
A close box—if possible, one that is made of tongued and grooved boards—igs 
necessary for fumigating purposes; a butter box is the very thing if it can be 
got large enough, yet not too large, for the hen should not be able to turn 
round. She should just fit in, and a piece must be cut out, a groove in fact, for 
the head to come through; and to prevent it being drawn in, make a large 
circular collar of cardboard with a cut out to the edge, so that it ean be twisted 
round the neck; then when the lid is put on all you see of the hen is her 
head emerging from the side of the box. To hold the hot coals and eae an 
old saucer, or jam tin cut down, is best, and it must be placed just behind the 
hen. I had a box made for fumigating my setting hens to rid them of vermin, 
and, instead of using a jam tin for the hot ashes, I had a small tin sunk in the 
bottom of the box in the right place, and when the hot coals were put in, and 
the spoonful of sulphur on them, a perforated cover fitted over, and there was 
no danger of the hen kicking the ashes about. It was a most excellent idea, 
and worked splendidly. From 5 to 7 minutes is the time I allow each hen, and 
before releasing her remove the collar, and let her draw her head in for a 
minute or two. I have seen the lice swarm fo the head till the hen was almost 
blind and mad with them, but, as a rule, they are overcome before they get so 
far as the head. For the poultry bug or tick it is likely that the hens will want 
‘doing more than once, but, if sulphur be given them in their food as well, I 
should say three fumigations (at the outside), and probably only two, would 
effectually get rid of the pests. It has been proved that sulphur, when the cows 
can be induced to take it, goes a long way towards ridding them of the cattle 
tick ; so it is worth trying for the fowls. If fumigating does not destroy this 
pest, I do not know what will; certainly I would not advise dipping; once you 
grease, smear, or saturate a fowl’s feathers with any foreign compound, you 
interfere with her health. I have seen. it done to get rid of vermin, and I have 
‘seen the birds mope about day after day, losing flesh and dwindling away to 
‘skin and bone. Her own animal oil—a supply of which every hen carries in her 
oil-bag—is the only oil that should go near ites feathers. Sulphur fumes, if 
rightly applied, will destroy all parasites far more effectually than any dip. One 
writer recommends kerosene, or kerosene and salad oil, applied with a rag to those 
arts where the eggs are. JL would not use it, nor advise any one else to; the 
‘v way it is excusable, or even necessary, is mixed with salad oil and about 6 
