36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



or in medicine, as a whole. We had better let medicine alone 

 if we can get along with something that is better ; we do have 

 something that is better. We have fresh air, which is one of 

 the greatest medicines in the world, and we have sunlight. 

 Pure sunshine and pure fresh air — those are the two greatest 

 remedial agencies that we, have. The late Doctor Oliver Wen- 

 dell Holmes, in speaking of the training of children, said that 

 if you want to train the child the way to do is to begin with 

 the grandparents ; so in breeding poultr}^ the way to do is 

 to begin with the grandparents. Begin now to grow your 

 chickens so that two or three generations from now you will 

 have healthy poultry. It is easy enough to do that. I have not 

 had a really sick bird on my place in five years. While I have 

 handled a good many sick birds, I should feel ashamed if I 

 had a sick bird on my place. That is, a really sick bird. My 

 birds are all housed at the present time, half of the flock in a 

 fresh air house, and the other half of the flock is in a semi- 

 closed house, one in which the windows have not been closed, 

 that is, all of them, since I moved on to the place. I never 

 intend to close those windows because I believe that fresh air 

 is just as essential for chickens at night as it is in the daytime. 

 Now a good man}' people say I am radical on that point, but I 

 think I can easily satisfy you in regard to my opinions on fresh 

 air. I maintain that a house in which the air is always fresh, 

 and which always has good ventilation, although the thermom- 

 eter may register several degrees lower than in a house that is 

 closed tightly, the house is actually warmer for the animals 

 living within that house than you think. You all know that if 

 you go into a barn or outbuilding that is closed tightly you 

 feel that terrible dampness and raw chill that cuts you to the 

 marrow. You do not get that in a fresh air house. I guess 

 there are a good many that have satisfied themselves as to the 

 difference between working in some open shed out of doors, 

 where we have felt pretty comfortable, and where we have 

 gone into a barn or another building that was shut up tiglit, 

 where the thermometer did not register nearly as low, where 

 we did not feel comfortable. We were chilled. We would 

 not stay there long before we had that creeping, chilly feeling 

 up and down the back. Now a chicken has its overcoat on all 

 the time, but we can take ours off. Now a year ago, in Janu- 

 ary, I had a notion that I wanted to build two more of these 



