Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 148, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1919 — KEEP POULTRY FREE FROM LICE [ARTICLE]

KEEP POULTRY FREE FROM LICE

Lousy hens are not likely to prove good sitters. Lousy chicks lose vitality and die. A lousy flock is unthrifty. With poultry and eggs selling at high prices, the poultryman can well afford to apply the simple remedies- which will keep his birds free from lice and mites. The University of Missouri college of agriculture has used sodium fluoride effectively and recommends a larger use of it by poultrymen. This chemical is exceedingly poisonous to all species of chicken lice. It kills both adults and young,' including the young which emerge from the eggs present at the time of treatment. One application of sodium flouride to fill fowls on the farm will completely destroy all lice present. Sodium fluoride may be applied as a dust or as a dip. One pound of, the chemical will be enough to dust about one hundred hens by the pinch method. This method, developed by the United States department of agriculture, is as follows: Hold the fowl by the legs or Wings with one hand while with the other hand a small pinch of the chemical is placed among the feathers next to the skin. Apply one pinch on the head, one on the neck, two on the back, one on the breast, one below the tent, one on the tail, one on either thigh, and one scattered on the underside of each wing when spread. Hold the chicken over a large shallow pan while dusting, to recover the material that might ordinarily be lost.