POULTRY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1293, 10 December 1896, Page 28

POULTRY.

DOCTORING FOWLS.

[By J. A.. Henderson.] In looking over the pages of poultry journals one is always struck with the large number of advertisements of poultry tonics, liver pills, &c., and a novice would lie apt to infer from this and from the frequent recommendations of medicines ro be found in most poultry books that it is difficult, if not impossible, to rear chickens or keep grcvu fowls healthy without continually dosing them.

That this is the case with many strains t& birds bred without due regard to constitution or fecundity is a melancholy fact, hut that it is necessary or even advisable fco be continually doctoring birds of a sound strain can never be admitted by anyone possessing elemen«ary scientific knowledge o~ sound common-sense. Is is the doctoring that mikes the birds «!elica e. If they are d ctored this year 3t is a dead certainty that their progeny 'will have to be doctored the next. Disease is much more easily bred into a strain than constitution or any other good <quality, and those that show the slightest (constitutional weakness should be carefully rej-eted as breeding birds. Indeed, considering that there is always a risk of their being bred from as long.us they are kept, it is better to destroy them. This •may be disheartening in the case of a "beginner who wants to rear a fairly large number, and sees his chicks dr oping, but Jet it be remembered that the larger number you kill this year, the fewer (breeding from the survivors), you will require to kiil rhe next. The above refers to general weakness of constitution shown by pining and stunted growth, and to diseases of the internal organs likely to be transmitted, as indeed most diseases of this nature are.

With regard to roup, except it be of a very mild type, and promptly cured, the aa.ne rule/ should apply. This disease yields to skdful treatment in almost every case, but it is observed that when a j-iumber of birds take it by infection from the same source, some develop a much more virulent type than others, indicating a constitution unduly susceptible, and these, at least, should not be bred from. Epizootic diseases arising from poisonlng of the ground, as cholera, and the disease variously referred to as poultry f*rni disease, typhoid and septicaemia, have a specially disastrous effect on the Constitution, and it would be mistaken policy to allow any chance of the weakness being transmitted.

Liver disease is one that should be carefully weeded out. Fowls and turkeys are very liable to it, and when ir lurks in the constitution successful rearing cannot be looked for. The •hicks soon begin to pine, and when they come to be dissected, are found to have overflown gall bladders or congested or spotted livers. Whole clutches of them go, one after the other. Some poultry-keepers think that if a hen recovers and lays well she may be safely bred from. In a case of liver disease she never can under any circumstances whatever.

There are two periods in the life of a pure-bred fowl when I believe a slight tonic (such as weak doses of sulphate of iron) may be given with advantage ; these are when ring as a chicken, and when in >u!ting, there being an extra 3train .on the constitution at these p -rinds. Cross-on d fowls should not require it. The whole secret of dealing with the complaints of fowl 3 may be summed up in a few words : Study to prevent diseases, especially those of a contagious nature, by strict attention to sanitary conditions, and never allow birds to transmit disease to their progeny when, as pointed out, you can prevent any chance of their doing