Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1913-10-16
POULTRY HYGIENE AND SANTA
TION.
DR.. Pearl Gives Timely Advice on Care
Of Fowls During Winter Season.

Oh 4OWIS DuT1uk U1uOcT 6O0SOuS
In his latest work on poultry, man
agement, DIR. Raymont Pearl pre-
scribes hygienic methods as of equal
Importance almost with vitality. The
following statements r in his views
upon the subject:
Second in importance only to high
constitutional vigor and health in the
stock is attention to the basic rules of
hygiene and sanitation in the manage
ment of poultry. This section gives
an account of the general principles
involved in the methods of dealing
with these matters practiced at the
Maine Agricultural Experiment Sta
ton. Attention to the rules and
principles here set forth will go a
great way toward preventing disease.
This does not mean that if rules are
not followed disease and destruction
will forthwith result.
Poultry hygiene and sanitation will
be considered here under v MAR.
heads, as follows: l., housing; 2, feed
ing; 8, the land; 4, exercise; 5, exter-
nal parasites; 6, disposal of the dead:
z, isolation of sickness. What is said
under all of these heads is intended to
apply (unless a specific statement to
the contrary is made) both to adult
birds and to chicks. No discussion OF
the hygiene of incubation or of the
relative marks of artifcially and nat
Urally Matched chickens will be I'M
dertaken here, because these are spe-
cial subjects falling outside the gen.
eral poultry hygiene.
Every one knows of plenty of in
stances of more or less successful
poultry keeping under the most I'M
sanitary and unhygienic of conditions.
So similarly human beings are able
when forced to do so TO live nue.
Unhygienic conditions. But every
civilized country in the world believes
that the most economical insurance
against the steady loss of national
wealth which the prevalence of dis
ease involves is the enforcement of
sanitary regulations throughout its
domain. In poultry keeping, many
may be successful, for a time, in man
aging their birds in defiance of the
laws of sanitation and hygiene, a very
few may be successful in this prac-
tiCe for a long time, but in the long
ILn the vast majority will find that
thorough, careful and intelligent at
tention to those laws will be one of
the best guarantees of permanent sue
cess that they can find.
Too great stress cannot be laid or
the Importance of plenty of fresh air
in the poultry house, if the birds are
to keep in good condition. And it
must be remembered in this connec-
CiCn that fresh air" and cold. stag
nant air are two very different things.
Toom any of the types of curtain and
so called fresh air" houses now in
Use are without any provision other
than an obliging southerly wind to
insure the circulation or changing of
air within The house Even with an
open front house it is wise to provide
for a circulation of air in such a way
that direct draughts cannot strike the
birds.
Avoid dampness. Of all unfavorable
environment conditions into which
poultry may, by bad management, be
brought, a damp house is probably the
worst. Nothing will diminish the pro-
ductivity of a flock so quickly as will
dampness in the house, and nothing
is SO certain and speedy an excitement
to roup and kindred ills. The place
where poultry is housed must be kept
dry if the flock is to be productive
and free from disease.
Provide clean and dry litter. EK-
| perieRce has demonstrated that the
lest way in which to give fowls ex-
ercise during the winter months, in
which, in Northern climates at least,
they must be housed the greater part
if not all of the time, is by provid-
ing a deep litter in which the birds
scratch for their rations.