56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



most of our houses were built with the expectation of doing 

 this, these have done as well, and I think better than any we 

 had on the place. My houses are very small compared with 

 some people's idea of a house. The first ones that we built I 

 had to cut my coat according to my cloth. Afterwards, I 

 made them a little larger, about eight by twelve, and that is 

 about the limit of anything on my place. In those eight by 

 twelve houses I keep from 40 to 45 hens. I keep Rhode 

 Island Reds. They are a bird pre-eminent, in my opinion, for 

 that section of the country. They are a fowl which is used to 

 living in cold houses, and they are less liable to be aflfected by 

 changes in the weather. 



DISCUSSION. 



The President. You do not think that fowls differ very 

 much from people, do you, in respect to their sensitiveness to 

 cold? 



Mr. Almy. I think that they do differ in this way; a fowl 

 cannot put on an extra coat every time he gets cold in order 

 to get warm, so you must keep your temperature so that they 

 will feel as little change as possible in going from indoors to 

 out-of-doors. In our houses it freezes inside when it is cold 

 enough, about as hard as it does outside, but as long as the 

 combs and wattles of the birds do not become frozen, I have 

 never noticed any bad effect upon the birds. 



Mr. Graham. Do you give them water or snow in the 

 winter? 



Mr. Almy. We always give them water. We give them 

 water right out of a deep well. 



Question. They can help themselves to snow, I suppose, 

 when there is snow? 



Mr. Almy. Yes. 



The President. When the snow is deep what do the 

 fowls do then, when the snow is too deep for them to get out? 

 Are they not apt to crowd in the building? 



Mr. Almy. I expected they would do that in these small 



