Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1898-02-16
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS.
How Successful Farmers Operase This
Department of the Farm-A Few
Hints as to the Care of Live Stock
and Poultry.
Some Common Trouble.

Some Common Trouble,
The most common diseases at this
season of the year are colds and roup.
1t is very important to be able to dis
tinguish between the two, says J. l..
Campbell in American Poultry Journal.
The only way l know of is by the smell.
Roup has smell so distinctly it's own
that once person becomes familiar
with it will be certain to always re-
cognize it again. When the attack is
light the odor, although very pro-
nounced, has none of the vileness that
1t acquires after the tissues Of the
head and throat begin to decay. This
fact leads many to suppose that roup
in the first stages is merely cold, but
1t is more than cold. Fowls do catch
a simple cold, Of course, and while
there is certain undefnable odor
about such cold it is so entirely diff
ferent from roup that an experienced
person will never make a mistake be-
tween the two. The best possible plan
to prevent either colds or roup is to
keep the fowls free from draughts and
reasonably warm; fowl is much safer
roosting on a tree than in any kind of
house where a current of air can strike
them through crack or knothole in
board. Do not let them crowd on the
perches; countless thousands of fowls
catch cold from this one cause alone,
especially young stork, and brooder
raised chirks are much more apt to
crowd on the perches than those raised
In small flocks. because they have been
raised that way.
Make perches in such manner that
no two fowls can touch each other, or
at least crowd up close. This can be
done in several ways; one very good
plan Is to cut sticks one inch square
and six inches long; nail these along
the roosting poles so that only one fowl
can get between two sticks; the spaces
Will need to be from six to eight inches,
owing to size of fowls, or boards six
inches high can be used and let the
fowls roost on them, and between them.
In either case each fowl will have to
sit by itself Where the climate is very
cold the spaces or boards can be made
to take two fowls, and that will pre-
vent crowding up tight. 1t is astonish-
ing how tight a row of fowls will jam
up pole in cold night. Some of
them get too hot and are sure to sweat
and catch cold. The best cure for colds
is warm, dry air; this will soon cure
without anything else. A little sulphur,
alum and magnesia, all in fine powder,
blown upon the nostrils and in the
ic icta in,
up and curing cold.
The air for a small sized poultry
house can be made quite dry with a
lamp alone for heater. To do this a
heater and condenser is required; the
heater can be made out Of a common
store box and a piece of sheet iron;
the iron should be put far enough up
from the bottom of the box to allow a
lamp to sit under it; then just above the
iron bore some holes to admit air. This
forms the heater; a window can be
made to serve the purpose of con-
denser. tight box must be placed
over the window inside the poultry
house, leaving the glass exposed to the
cold air outside. Now then make a
connection between the heater and the
condenser so that the warm air from
the heater can enter the condenser
near the bottom of the window; the
warm air will strike the glass and be-
come cold and part with nearly all it's
moisture. The dry air must be al
lowed to escape near the bottom of the
condenser, but as high above the lamp
as possible-anywhere from a foot to
three feet above the lamp will do. The
condenser box must be very tight at the
top, else it will not work good. Such
a crude affair as this will take a most
astonishing amount Of water out of the
air in a cold night, and will be found
very useful in damp house, and the
whole thing need not usually cost any
thing more than the time it takes to
put it up. If the apparatus is desired to
be used as ventilator as we'll as a
dryer, take the air from the outside in
to the heater, but If merely as a dryer
then take the air from inside the house
to the heater box. In either case this
plan will extract the greater part of the
surplus moisture. Perfectly dry air,
il it could be had, would cure roup
without any other attention, that is, as
far as it can be cured.