The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-10-08
Farm, Garden and Household,
Poultry Parasites,


The use of sassafras wood for perches
and nest boxes has been repeatedly rec
ommend as preventive of vermin in
poultry houses.
A recent correspondent of the Poultry
Bulletin furnishes to that paper an
article from the american Farmer of
1919, in which it is most positively as
serted that sassafras possesses this vir-
tue. Every year or two this same old
story is repeated by theorizing writers
on poultry affairs. Why is it that such
idle statements SO often find their way
into print ? In this case it must be
owing to misunderstanding of terms
as well as to ignorance of the nature of
some of our poultry nests.
The term "vermin," as used in the
article abve mentioned, is explained to
mean chicken lice, yet the writer no
doubt referred to what are commonly
known as "jiggers," or chicken mites
Tor chicken lice proper live on the
bodies of the fowls, while the mites in
fest the perches, and trouble the fowls
chiefly at night. The chicken mites
are to poultry houses what bedbugs are
TO human habitations. They suck the
blood of the fowls at night, and hide
away i'll the cracks and crevices of the
perches during the day. They belong
to the class of spiders while the chick
en- lice are true insects, different class
altogether.
in neglected poultry houses the
mites are sometimes found in great
numbers crawling over the perches,
nests, floors and walls, so that person
dare not enter for fear of being over
run by them. AS the true chicken lice
arc never known to accumulate to
such an extent, the sassafras preventive
is no doubt meant to apply to these
swarms of mites rather than to lice
proper; and now the surprise is that
this pretended preventive (having no
foundation at all for reliability, except
i'll the fertile imaginations of some
writers gifted with peculiarly sensitive
olfactories) should be so often brought
20 our notice without calling forth the
indignant protest of better informed
poultry keepers against such senseless
theories.
We have been in the habit of using
sassafras poles in our hen houses for
many years past, because they were
easily obtained, and besides the bark
is Just about the right roughness to ad-
NIT of the fowls grasping the perches
comfortably but the mites seem not to
be annoyed in the least by the aroma
of the sassafras. Even the free use of
whitewash will not dislodge them. We
have also freely applied sulphur to the
perches, but without much effect. The
only means by which we have been able
to rid our fowls of these pests has been
to well saturate the perches occasion
ally with coal oil. This is applied with
an old paint brush. The oil is very
penetrating and quickly finds its way
into the creVices and beneath the loose
bark.
The same correspondent of the Poul-
try Bulletin, who has again brought to
light this old notion about the virtue
of the aromatic sassafras, promulgates
this additional piece of information:
"The thousand and one remedies
recommended to free chickens from lice
are thrown into the shade by the fol-
lowing safe and effectual mixture A
spoonful each of lard oil and powdered
sassafras bark mix and apply to the
head and neck of the chicken, and un-
der the wings and breast of an old
fowl. One application of the work, il
carefully done, is all that is neces
sary."
Now the lard-oil alone, or common
clean lard, will answer every purpose
of the above mixture. It is the lard
or oil, stopping the breathing pores o.
the lice, that kills them so effectually
and the sassafras las nothing to dc
with it whatever.
Some writers have recommended sui
phur and lard for the same purpose
l,-f Tho 10 vi oJn ,r,n 4
every time, and the chicks are spared
otherwise injuriously affected by th'
use of sulphur.-Prairie Farmer.
salt-Rising Bread.
Put teacups of water, as warm a
you can bear your finger in, in two
quart cup or bowl, and of teaspoon
full of salt. Stir in flour enough t,
make quite q stiff batter. This is TO
the rising, or emptyings, as some cal
it. Set the bowl, closely covered, in
kettle, in warm water, as warm as 20,
can bear your finger in, and keep it a
near this temperature as possible. No
tice the time you set your rising. L
three hours stir in tablespoonfuls O
flour put it back, and in five and one
half hours from the time of setting
will be within one inch of the top O
your bowl. 1t is then light enough an
will make up s quarts of -four. Max
sponge in the center of your flou
with quart of the same temperatur
as rising, stir the rising into it, cove
over with little dry -four and put
where it Will keep very warm and nc
scald. In three-fourths of an hour mi
this into stiff dough. If water is used
be sure it is very warm and do nc
work as much as yeast bread. Max
the loaves a little larger and keep:
warm for another quarters of a
hour. 1t will then be ready to bake
While rising this last time, have you
oven heating. 1t needs hotter owe
than yeast bread. If these rules ar
followed, you will have bread as whit
as snow, with light brown crust, dt
liciously sweet and tender.
Indians at Work.