CAUSES OF DISEASE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2148, 13 January 1881, Page 4

CAUSES OF DISEASE.

[“ Prairie Farmer.”] ' Leading physicians and others who have made a business of getting at the “ root of evil ” where sickness is concerned, have pretty well established the fact that foul air and impure water are the original causes of fully one-half the ailments to which mankind we subject, and I am inclined to think -that irregularities in eating ought to be held responsible for a good share of the other * idlf. Now, if foul air, impure water, and food : that is insufficient in quantity and quality will produce disease among human beings, why will not the some causes produce disease among live stock of any description ? I fully believe that nearly all the sickness among our domestic animals might he traced directly to the three causes that I hove named, but as it tj my business to attend to the poultry, I will confine my attention to that just now. and 'leave the diseases of the horses, cows, sheep and pigs to somebody else. Chief among the causes that produce disease among our feathered pets, I place impure -sur; it is responsible for more sickness among poultry than all other causes combined. A man will shut up a dozen, perhaps twenty fowls in a little 7x9 house with little or nn provision for ventilation, thereby compelling thorn to breathe over and over again the foul air that is always generated in occupied, unventilated' rooms, and then wonder “ what under the sun made bis hens die off so sudden like with the cholera.” If you have any doubt about the nnwbolesomeness of the air in an unventilated chicken apartment, just go out some of these sultry mornings and thrust your .nose inside the door before the fowls have left lbs roosts, and that organ will soon convince you that thorough ventilation is a necessity. Pare air is plenty and cheap; in the name of humanity give all the live stock in your premises enough of it. Next in the list of ’the primal causes of disease among poultry comes impure water. A good many farmers who make adequate provisions for a supply of pure water for aU other kinds of stock on the farm, never seem to think that the hens need water just as much'as the horses. “Oh! they get enough somewhere 1” ' Yes, but where ? • You wouldn’t think of watering your horse or taking a drink yourself from under the sink- . :epojjt or from a stagnant ditch, or from the teachings of the barnyard, but that is just where you compel your fowls to drink when you neglect to supply them with pure water, " Hens don’t drink much anyway.” 'Don't they P Just set a pail of fresh water in the shade and watch the biddies. What do you suppose the good Lord ever made all the water in this world for if not for His creatures, * brute as well as human, to drink. Now we come to the question of food, and VI imagine that ■ when you think of all the bugs, worms and other “ critters ” that a hen -will pick up and swallow in the course of her r rambles, you will laugh at the idea of anything in the way of food upsetting a hen’s 'digestive apparatus. ' But, my dear sir, those * bugs, worms and “ critters ” are the natural food of fowls, and if, where such food is abundant, we forced our fowls to scratch for the . greater part of their living during the summer, they would be healthier than when fed .on grain. A. good doal of the food that is fee to fowls that are confined to yards or tl rone ” during hot weather in absolutely .poisonous. 'I would about as soon think of seeding my fowls; Paris green, as giving them butcher’s offal during warm weather, but 1 know a poultry keeper who fed the stuff to his fowls right straight through July and .August, and when they sickened and died with cholera declared that he had “ the > meanest luck with hens of any man in the estate of Ohio,” and he would “ be blanked if ii.e ever bed another on his promises.” Another would-be poultry raiser fed his ' lusty Cochins and Brahmas whole corn right Along until they were too fat and lazy to .jnove, so when the hottest weather came they, just toppled aver and died, and their .owner made haste to condemn the whole -tribe of-.Asiatio fowls. i. Over crowding is another fruitful source of .disease among fowls. A good many beginners, in the poultry business have an insane desire to keep half a dozen different varieties, .whan it would probably tax their skill to .breed, even one variety properly, so they ■crowd a dozen fowls of each variety into a house >.that would probably accommodate •twentyr.fowls of one variety, and as a natural 'COiiaeqnonce sickness and all manner of '“ooisedoess ” follows ; fowls are a good deal ' like human beings in this respect. Bat this -question of too many varieties must wait OUbdl another time.