1GS Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



small window in front and a door in the front or end, as suits 

 you best. We put the nest boxes on the floor, the dropping board 

 over nest boxes and the roost still six inches higher up and close 

 to the roof. For our laying-houses we buy upright piano boxes. 

 Three piano boxes will make two houses. The boxes cost any- 

 where from $1.20 to $2, according to the section you are in. We 

 lay the box down on its back and make the bottom of the box the 

 front of the house, and raise it up to four feet in height; put a 

 seven by nine window in about one foot from the floor, and in 

 the end we put a 20x30-inch door. Our roof will slant from the 

 four-foot front down to the slant that is already in the top. We 

 make three nest boxes 12x14x10 inches high and put on the floor 

 under the lowest part of the roof. Over this we put a dropping 

 board, two and one-half feet wide, and four inches higher up we 

 put our roost. In the end opposite door we cut an 8xl2-inch 

 hole with a slide for our fowl to get in and out. Then a coat 

 of paint and our house is complete. The roost, dropping board 

 and nest boxes should be loose so they can be taken out and 

 cleaned. We have used these houses with great success and have 

 had them out all winter in the coldest climate, the thermometer 

 going down to 25 and 30 degrees below zero; but if it was possible 

 we would prefer to have a shed to put them under in the winter- 

 time, so as to give the fowl a chance to scratch. We keep from 

 16 to 25 old birds in each house, and have had as high as 28 

 " Rocks " in one house all winter and have them lay all the time. 

 These houses are handy, can be moved easily and any one having 

 grain lots where they would like to have their hens, can set this 

 house, hens and all, on a stoneboat and move them to the lot on short 

 notice. They are a good colony-house and save building lots of 

 fence where several different kinds of poultry are kept. 



Question. — How can we get uniformity in judging? Isn't it 

 a fact that poultry judging is quite as much of a profession as is 

 the practice of law or medicine? If so, should not our judges be 

 fitted for their profession the same as are our lawyers and doctors ? 



Answer. — The exact uniformity in judging poultry would call 

 for the same preference in all mankind. Such conditions would 

 lead us all to select the same manner of form and color, but so 

 long as mankind have their several opinions on other matters just 

 so long will they differ as to their opinion on fowl. While poultry 

 judging is a calling after the fashion of the practice of law or medi- 

 cine, there is still quite as many opinions as to the letter of the 

 law or the practice of medicine as there is in the selection of the 



