One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered Part 75

You need not worry about getting her thin. She simply requires less food. An animal excessively fat brings forth an inferior offspring.

Musty Corn for Pigs.

Would Egyptian corn that has been musty and then dried in the sun be fit for pigs? It heated and musted quite a good deal, but is dried well. The idea is, to grind it and then feed it in milk if good.

It is very dangerous to feed any stock moldy or musty food, especially pregnant animals. It is this kind of food which causes a majority of the abortions. Mold or s.m.u.t in food is poisonous both to man and beast. It is usually almost impossible to get out of feed because it runs throughout the structure of the hay or grain.

Wounds and Wound Swellings.

What is the proper treatment for a fresh wire cut on a horse? How should saddle galls be treated? Is there any way to make the hair come in its natural color where saddle galls have been? How can an enlargement of a colt's leg, caused from a wire cut, be reduced?

After all foreign matter has been removed from a lacerated wound, like that made in a wire cut, the wound should be carefully fomented with warm water, to which has been added carbolic acid in the proportion of 1 part to 100 of water. It should then be bandaged to prevent infection.

Zinc ointment would be a good thing to use under the bandage. For a simple saddle, or harness gall, some ointment like the following should be applied and the wound rested up: One pint alcohol in which are shaken the whites of 2 eggs; a solution of nitrate of silver, 10 grains to the ounce of water; sugar of lead or sulphate of zinc, 20 grains to an ounce of water; and so on. Or advertised gall cures may be applied. If a sitfest has developed, the dead hornlike slough must be cut out and the wound treated with antiseptics. There is no way we know of to make hair come in with natural color after a wound. The swelling on the colt's leg may he reduced by rubbing it well several times a day and at night rub in some 10 per cent iodine petrogen.

Fly Repellants.

Can you tell me what to use as a spray to kill the flies in my stable?

In the early, morning the ceiling and sides are thickly covered with the pests partly dormant but not enough so that they can be swept down and killed. What spray can I use that will destroy them?

It is difficult to kill flies by spraying them. You can, however, spray the sides and ceiling of the barn with a spray of epsom salts (sulphate of magnesia) using about a cupful to the gallon, which will prevent them from gathering there. And since prevention is better than cure, flies can be kept from gathering around by, destroying their breeding places, if those are under one's control, by having all manure and litter removed before the flies have a chance to develop. The following may be found useful to readers as a spray to keep away flies: Fish oil, 2 quarts; kerosene, 1 quart; crude carbolic acid, 1 pint; oil of pennyroyal, 1 ounce; oil of tar; 10 ounces. Mix thoroughly and apply in a fine spray. The following has been successfully used to repel flies from cows: Nitro benzine, 5 ounces; carbolic acid, 3 ounces; kerosene oil, 3 ounces; sol. formaldehyde, 1 ounce; fish oil, 1 1/2 quarts. Mix and just touch the hair with the mixture.

To Destroy Fleas.

My barn, is full, of fleas I tried to destroy them by using creso-dip, but did not kill them, all.

Fleas can only be permanently checked by destroying their breeding places which are in the dust! and dirt that acc.u.mulate 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 appet.i.te 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.

The fowls were victims of jaundice, which is a form of liver disease and caused by over-feeding on rich starchy foods that also cause fowls to become overfat. However, at the end of the laying season and the beginning of the molt the poultry keeper will lose some hens, even when kept under the best conditions, and especially hens of that age. In doctoring such cases in the way described, if the fowl does not improve in a couple of days, the hatchet cure is the most profitable.

Rupture of Oviduct.

I have had two other hens die suddenly when on the nest. The second one - we opened and found one egg broken near the vent and another with sh.e.l.l formed ready to be laid.

Rupture of the oviduct was probably the cause of the hens dying on the nest and is due to the same condition in the hens; that is, the straining to expel the egg necessary in the engorged condition of the internal organs from overfatness.

Melons for Fowls.

Have "stock melons" or "citrons" any merit as a green food for laying hens? Are the seeds of the above injurious to hens or cows?

Stock melons are desirable for chicken feeding if other succulent materials are scarce, but they are inferior to alfalfa and other clovers. Seeds are not injurious to stock unless possibly one should feed to excess by separating them from the other tissues. If melons are fed as they grow, no apprehension need be had from injury by seed.

Rape and Vetch for Chickens.

What time do you sow rape and vetch and are they good for chickens?