such work, however, if successfully carried out, would be of great value, not only to the State but to the whole country.

CATCHING TURKEYS IN THE FALL.

Beginners, especially, have much difficulty in securing their turkeys when they desire to kill and market them. A bungling and unsuccessful attempt to catch a flock may make them so suspicious that they cannot be surrounded or approached the remainder of the season. Repeated attempts to catch them increases their wildness, and frequently the only way to secure them has been to shoot them. This is more apt to be the case if the stock contains wild blood. Old hands at the business have learned by experience the proper course to pursue. The usual plan is to get the birds into a barn or carriage shed and shut them in. In order to do this they are fed for a long time in front of or just within the place in which they are to be caught. Later, the feed is placed within the building and they become so familiar with it that they are unsuspicious when within. The feeder takes pains not to appear to notice or watch them and moves about very slowly and quietly. When they are to be caught the doors of the building are suddenly closed or a covered yard of wire netting is built in front of the building and closed when all are in. Usually when they find they are confined they become frightened and fly back and forth or huddle up in corners, and sometimes many are smothered beneath the pile of frightened birds. In flying back and forth against the netting, their wings become bruised and their appearance when dressed is injured. To overcome this drawback, certain raisers have improved the usual make-shift catching place by building a long, low, dark pen, back of the barn or shed. This pen extends alongside of the building, and is at right angles with the entrance to it, and at the extreme end is about two feet high. Up to the time of their being caught the end is left open and the birds frequently find their way through When closely approached from the front when feeding in the

it.

building, they rely upon this means of escape and are not frightened. When they are to be caught, only what the pen will comfortably take, are driven in. They do not discover that the end is closed until it is too late to try to turn back. The turkeys that are not to be caught are first driven away, otherwise they may be alarmed and become unmanageable. No turkey that is thus caught and has learned the mysteries of the trap is ever allowed to escape or its suspicions would be communicated to the others. When shut in this pen they are quiet, and when a man goes to catch them there is no struggle, he simply reaches out and takes them by the legs. The pen is too dark and narrow for them to fly and too low for them to crowd one upon another.

A STUDY OF THE DISEASES OF TURKEYS.

The bodies of most of the young turkeys that died on the Experiment Station farm were secured and examined, and in almost every instance their livers were found to be diseased and spotted. Of the few which died when nearly mature, part had badly diseased livers, while the remainder seemed to have had simple acute diarrhoea. Of those sent to us from other parts of the State that had died of "Black Head" at maturity or when being fattened, the livers were one mass of hardened, yellow lumps. Whether this trouble originates in a digestive derangement which gradually causes morbid changes in the liver, or is directly due to infection, we cannot say. Sections of these livers preserved in alcohol have been sent to Dr. Theobald Smith, Chief of the Division of Animal Pathology, Bureau of Animal Industry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture at Washington, who thinks the specimens indicate that there is an infectious disease to be dealt with, but cannot fully determine without fresh material, which we have not, up to this date, been able to secure.

A knowledge of the cause of a disease is a great help in showing how it should be dealt with, but much may be done before we get that knowledge.

Although the greatest trouble in raising turkeys may be due to a lack of vigor or hardiness,—the result of breeding from young, inferior or closely related stock, there is no question but that turkeys, as well as other living creatures, are liable to be destroyed by diseases which even the most vigorous may not escape if exposed to the most virulent form. Over-feeding, underfeeding, lack of exercise and various influences may make individuals more susceptible, but certain infections are so powerful as to overcome even the strongest and finest specimens. If Black Head is a disease, even though the cause is yet unknown, certain general principles may be followed in preventing or stamping it out.

Cholera, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and many other serious diseases which afflict man are all prevented from becoming general by nearly the same means. These diseases are propagated by germs given off by the patient. If infected persons are not immediately separated from the well, and isolated,-prevented from coming in contact with others,-they would cause an epidemic, which once well started, might sweep the country. Not only are such patients kept in quarantine, but those who care for them are also prevented from coming in direct contact with the well. When the disease has run its course, the patient, the attendants, the rooms occupied, and every article that the germs may have come in contact with are disinfected,-cleansed with some solution that kills germs. If this is properly done all of the germs within doors are destroyed. If this were not done every one using the same rooms, clothing or articles in the room would be liable to infection, even a long time after the patient had vacated the premises. Germs of disease may dry up, and, if not destroyed, again become active a long time after, if given suitable soil to grow in. They grow faster and multiply with greater rapidity in some soils, and, as in the case of weeds grown in sand and rich loam, the ranker the growth, the more rapidly they spread, the greater the number of germs thrown off and the greater their power. Living surfaces having healthy secretions are poor soils for germs, while

abnormal secretions may enable them to thrive. Filth and decaying matter nourish certain germs. Healthy organs resist and may destroy a certain quantity of disease germs, but may be overcome by a much greater number.

A fowl having a simple cold may in a locality where there has been no roup have simple catarrh a long time and then get well without having anything else, while the same fowl in quarters where many fowls have had the virulent roup will, unless washed with a disinfectant, get the offensive symptoms in a short time.

Immediate isolation and disinfection should be as promptly enforced in the case of diseased fowls as with diseased persons. If Black Head is contagious, as supposed, it could have been prevented from becoming so general if vigorously attended to when it first appeared, and may now be stamped out in this State by means similar to those used by any Board of Health. Every infected flock is a menace to other flocks. Kill and burn, or bury deep all diseased birds, disinfect that which they have contaminated, if possible, and remove the survivors to fresh, uncontaminated land, and keep this up. Other turkeys should be prevented from going on to the infected land. This, in combination with the use of vigorous stock only, bred and fed and cared for according to the best methods, should do away with the mortality among turkeys.

TAPE WORMS IN TURKEYS.

Last September when visiting a turkey raiser in this State who was occasionally losing turkeys, we secured of him a bird that had just died, apparently of bowel trouble, and took it home for dissection. A thorough examination was made to find the cause of death. Upon opening the abdominal cavity nothing out of the way was seen, the liver and other organs being apparently in a normal condition. When the alimentary canal was laid open its entire length, it was found to contain a large number of very slender tape worms, in all stages of growth, from a quarter of an inch long to 18 inches or more in length. In some parts of the