1 Fes., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 119 
Poultry. 
FILTHY FOOD AND SURROUNDINGS, 
PovrtRy-BREEDERS will do well to take a warning from the following, which 
we take from the Agricultural Gazette :— 
There is little room to doubt that nine-tenths of all the diseases to which 
both man and beast are heir are the direct result of the neglect of the laws of 
sanitation, and in this term we include not only purity of air and surroundings 
but also—and very especially so—purity of food. We have repeatedly called 
attention to the very bad practice many poultry-keepers have of throwing down 
the food for their poultry, for weeks or months together, on to the same spot of 
ground, often wet and dirty, and thus every bit of food the birds get is con- 
taminated with filth, and, as a matter of course, the food is greatly damaged, 
and is a ready means of introducing disease. 
A serious object-lesson on this question is now brought before our notice 
in the congested districts of Ireland. Within the last few weeks many of the 
farmers and others have lost 90 per cent. of their fowls, and it is feared 
that before the disease is stayed there will be very few fowls left. Hitherto 
all efforts to cure have proved utterly futile. The disease is styled enteritis, 
put, by whatever name it is called, it is clearly the result of filthy food and 
general surroundings. There has been an utter disregard of all laws of sani- 
tation, and thus everything has become thoroughly impregnated with disease 
germs, and Nature is now dealing out punishment for past carelessness. 
Let all poultry-keepers take warning, and, whilst being careful to have 
roosting-houses and runs, when poultry are in confinement, regularly cleaned and 
ventilated, above all to take care that their food is perfectly sweet and clean. 
Soft food ought not to be thrown on to the bare ground, but given in troughs that 
can be regularly washed, and clean drinking water provided in abundance and 
placed conveniently for the fowls at numerous spots, and regularly at the same 
places, as they then know where to get it without drinking from filthy pools; 
and all grain should be either thrown amongst grass or litter, thus not only 
preventing its becoming defiled, but inducing beneficial exertion in hunting for 
it. Referring again to the outbreak in Ireland, itis the most serious visitation 
that has ever occurred amongst poultry in that country, and there will scarcely 
be any fowls left in those districts, and the loss need never have occurred had 
the common laws of health been observed. 
TO TELL THE AGE OF A FOWL. 
Tur simplest way, and one which is adopted by the London poultry-dealer, is. 
to feel the breastbone of the live bird. If the bone feels tender and supple 
like gristle, the bird is young. If, on the other hand, the bone feels hard and 
ridgy, the bird is fully matured, and very much so. ed 
SETTING HENS. 
Mr. Guoran Ryxarr, writing on the above subject, says:—Seeing an article 
in your last issue of the Journal on setting fowls, by an old friend of mine, 
with great success, will you kindly insert for the comfort of sitting hens, and 
