ewhat hampered in
our old-fashioned and quieter-going country.--_London Morning Post_.

* * * * *

THE LATEST KNOWLEDGE ABOUT GAPES.

The gape worm may be termed the _bete noir_ of the poultry-keeper--his
greatest enemy--whether he be farmer or fancier. It is true there are some
who declare that it is unknown in their poultry-yards--that they have never
been troubled with it at all. These are apt to lay it down, as I saw a
correspondent did in a recent number of the _Country Gentleman_, that the
cause is want of cleanliness or neglect in some way. But I can vouch that
that is not so. I have been in yards where everything was first-rate, where
the cleanliness was almost painfully complete, where no fault in the way of
neglect could be found, and yet the gapes were there; and on the other
hand, I have known places where every condition seemed favorable to the
development of such a disease, and there it was absent--this not in
isolated cases, but in many. No, we must look elsewhere for the cause.

Observations lead me to the belief that gapes are more than usually
troublesome during a wet spring or summer following a mild winter. This
would tend to show that the egg from which the worm (that is in itself the
disease) emerges is communicated from the ground, from the food eaten, or
the water drunk, in the first instance, but it is more than possible that
the insects themselves may pass from one fowl to another. All this we can
accept as a settled fact, and also any description of the way in which the
parasitic worms attach themselves to the throats of the birds, and cause
the peculiar gaping of the mouth which gives the name to the disease.

Many remedies have been suggested, and my object now is to communicate some
of the later ones--thus to give a variety of methods, so that in case of
the failure of one, another will be at hand ready to be tried. It is a
mistake always to pin the faith to one remedy, for the varying conditions
found in fowls compel a different treatment. The old plan of dislodging the
worms with a feather is well known, and need not be described again. But I
may mention that in this country some have found the use of an ointment,
first suggested by Mr. Lewis Wright, I believe, most valuable. This is made
of mercurial ointment, two parts; pure lard, two parts; flour of sulphur,
one part; crude petroleum, one part--and when mixed together is applied to
the heads of