. Our domestic birds; . Fig. 163. Turkey hen with brood. (Photograph from the Bureau ofAnimal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture) After the young turkeys are five or six weeks old, they do notneed such close watching. They are now so well feathered thattheir plumage sheds rain, and if they are thrifty, a little wettingwill not hurt them. It is at this age that the symptoms of thedisease called blackhead begin to appear, if it is present, andthe turkeys pine away and die one by one. Blackhead is a con-tagious liver disease which affects fowls as well as turkeys, butis most fatal
. Our domestic birds; . Fig. 163. Turkey hen with brood. (Photograph from the Bureau ofAnimal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture) After the young turkeys are five or six weeks old, they do notneed such close watching. They are now so well feathered thattheir plumage sheds rain, and if they are thrifty, a little wettingwill not hurt them. It is at this age that the symptoms of thedisease called blackhead begin to appear, if it is present, andthe turkeys pine away and die one by one. Blackhead is a con-tagious liver disease which affects fowls as well as turkeys, butis most fatal to young turkeys, because it is a filth disease;. [99 200 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS as has been said, turkeys are especially sensitive to foul con-ditions, and the young of all kinds of poultry are more sensitiveto such conditions than the adults. The germs of the diseasepass into the soil with the excrement of affected birds and mayremain there for several years. Young birds feeding on landcontaining these germs may take up some with their food. Ifthe birds are vigorous and thrifty and the land is not badly in-fected, no harm may be done, but if the birds are weakly andthe land is so badly infected that they are constantly taking upmore germs, the disease soon develops in acute form. Many people suppose that if once they have serious troublewith this disease, it is useless for them to try to grow turkeys, butthis is an error. The germs of the disease are distroyed by cul-tivating the land and exposing them to the sun and air. Threeor four years of cultivation will rid a piece of land of diseasegerms, no matter how badly it is affected. The
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