366 Reading-Course for Farmers. 



work quite satisfactorily in dwelling houses and barns, fail to work in a 

 hen house is that there is so small an amount of heat generated by the 

 bodies of the fowls in proportion to the amount of air space; and second 

 from the fact that tlie house is subject to so many changes through the 

 opening and closing of doors and windows, or the loose construction 

 which sets up counter-currents, causing the system to fail to always 

 " draw " in the right direction. Pure air is even more important for 

 poultry than for other domestic animals. This is because their body 

 temperature is 105-6 degrees, which is several degrees higher than it is 

 with most animals. The body temperature is maintained by combustion 

 of food nutrients with the oxygen of the air. If oxygen is lacking, the 

 body lires smoulder and impure blood results. 



Q. 12. How much window surface should be placed in a house? 



Ans. 12. Page 284, paragraph 2. The modern hen house must pro- 

 vide healthfulness and good cheer by admitting an abundance of sunlight, 

 which shall have direct access to every part of the house. This is obtained 

 most effectively by placing the top of the window high and the bottom 

 low. This makes a comparatively long, narrow window, and provides for 

 a wide sweep of sunlight as the sun passes from east to west. By placing 

 the windows near together, and making that part of the partition next 

 the front of the house of wire, the sunlight can pass through so that each 

 pen gets the benefit of the sunlight from its own window and that of the 

 other pen also. (For experimental purposes the partition as shown is 

 of wood.) 



The windows are hung on the side and swing against the partition 

 in which position they are readily opened and closed. When opened, as 

 they should be during the entire summer season, they are in the most 

 secure place possible to avoid breakage. 



This house is provided with 31 square feet of glass surface which is 

 .51 square feet per fowl. 



The glass windows are two feet four inches by two feet eight inches, 

 and contain eight by ten inch glass. 



Q. 13. Would you admse the use of cloth windows? 



Ans. 13. Page 288, paragraph 2. Each pen of the house is provided 

 with a cloth frame hung at the top, covering a window opening six feet 

 four inches by three feet four inches. (See Figs. 345, 349, 350.) The 

 two cloth windows furnish 84.3 square feet of cloth surface, which is 

 nearly one square foot per fowl, about two and one-half times as much 

 cloth surface as glass area. The top of the window is six feet eight inches 

 from the floor, the bottom three feet four inches from the floor. 



