58 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



three years, gave great satisfaction, and the same general plan 

 was adopted in the construction of a large house. 



This house, designated as House No. 2, was built three years 

 ago. It is 12 feet wide and 150 feet long and is divided into 

 20 feet sections. In each section, with its floor surface of 240 

 feet, 50 pullets have been wintered each year, most successfully. 



Two years ago another house was built on the same plan, 

 except that it is 16 feet wide instead of 12. It is 120 feet long 

 and consists of 4 sections or houses, each 16 by 30 feet in size. 

 There is no separate walk through the building, but in the close 

 board partition, separating the pens, are doors, hung with double 

 acting hinges, which allow them to swing both ways, and close 

 automatically, after the attendant passes through. Each pen 

 has a floor surface of 480 feet and gives ample accommodation 

 to 100 hens. All of the hens in these two open front houses, 

 in flocks of 50 or 100, averaged laying 144 eggs each last year, 

 and the birds were in excellent health. The front curtains were 

 open all of the time every day, except the very stormiest in 

 winter. 



While the same plan is common to all of these open front 

 houses, the width has been increased in each succeednig one 

 built. The first house was 10 feet wide, the second 12 feet, the 

 third 16 feet in width. The laying and breeding house at 

 Go- Well Farm, described on another page, is 20 feet wide and 

 is more satisfactory than the narrower houses, because of 

 economy in cost, and its greater housing capacity in proportion 

 to its length, which reduces the labor required in caring for the 

 birds, by having them in square rooms rather than in long 

 narrow ones. 



Additional Opportunities for Investigation. 



The poultry plant at the Station is devoted to experiment and 

 research work. There are many questions relating directly to 

 commercial poultry operations, that are left untouched because 

 the Station plant was already taxed to its capacity. 



When the Go-Well poultry farm was established, last year, 

 the opportunities were so good for studying poultry subjects on 

 a purely commercial plant, where the entire energies of the 

 place are devoted to this one business specialty, that arrange- 

 ments were made with its owner which enables the Station to 



