Fleas can only be permanently checked by destroying their breeding places which are in the dust! and dirt that accumulate in cracks and corners around barns, sheds and dwellings.  Follow the cleaning up with a thorough distribution of flake naphthalene.  This is most effective where the stable or room can be closed tight for half a day, or even 24 hours; An ingenious suggestion is made that if a sheep can be let run in and around the buildings where the fleas breed, they will soon be less numerous and as new batches hatch out the sheep will soon get them picked up, and after a while the place will be entirely free of them.  But the sheep must be allowed to run all around the sheds and breeding places, as the flea jumps up, gets into the wool, and can never get out again.  A hog can also be used as a flea trap.  One reader says:  Pour a little of the crude oil on the hogs’ heads and along their backs, about a gill on each hog; This would run down the sides of the hogs and kill all the fleas on them.  The oil also remains on the hogs for several days, and all the fleas that jump on the hogs from the ground stick fast and never jump off again.  In about three weeks the fleas all disappear and the hogs look fine and sleek from the use of the oil.

Part VIII.  Poultry Keeping

Largely compiled from the writings of Mrs. W. Russell James and Mrs. Susan Swapgood.

Teaching Chicks to Perch.

What is a good method of breaking in young brooder chicks to use the roosts?

At from six to eight weeks old the chicks should be taken from the brooder quarters to the colony houses and range, or wherever they are to be located, and at this time they should be taught to perch.  Have the new quarters arranged with low wide perches (1 by 3-inch scantlings); also make slatted frames by nailing lath or other such narrow strips two inches apart.  Set these frames against the wall so that they will extend slant-wise under the perches, and have the corners on the other side of the room cut off by nailing boards across them.  The chicks will run up on the frame to find a huddling corner and land on the perches, as they cannot rest on the open slanting frame.  A little care for a few evenings in putting up those that remain on the floor and straightening them out on the perches will teach them the ropes.  Where there are but a few to be taught, all that is necessary is to provide the low wide perches and shut out the corners, and a few of the smart ones will soon take to the perches, and gradually others will follow until all will be roosting.

Liver Disease.

I have hens which seem well in every respect up to the time of their combs changing color, when they die within three days.  The combs turn a faint yellow, almost white; they are heavy, have their usual appetite up to the lost 24 hours.  I have treated by giving small doses of castor oil and Douglas mixture in the drinking water, feeding on dry mash with plenty of green feed.  There is no tendency to lameness nor limp neck.  The droppings are loose and very white.