THE LEGHORNS 



131 



gravelly, and the fowls find all the grit necessary in the 

 fields on many of the farms. 



Petaluma Methods 



Another point that has a good deal to do with Peta- 

 luma's success is nearness to good markets. San Fran- 

 cisco, less than 40 miles from Petaluma, is one of the 

 best markets in the United States for poultry products. 

 During the past winter Petaluma poultrymen received as 

 high as 55 cents a dozen for eggs wholesale, and 20 cents, 

 I believe, has been the lowest this year. 



Among unfavorable conditions that may be mentioned 

 is the relatively high price of feed. Practically all the 

 feed has. to be shipped in, a good deal of the wheat com- 



STYLE OF HOUSE ON H. A. GEORGE'S FARM, SHOWING 



NESTING ARRANGEMENT LID OPEN. HOUSE 8 



FEET, BT 12 FEET, 4 FOOT WALL. 



ing from Oregon. In this respect Petaluma is rather at 

 a disadvantage compared with most other sections. 



On the whole, however, it would be difficult to find 

 any other section of the United States where the condi- 

 tions are better for successful poultry-keeping, though 

 they may not be ideal at Petaluma. 



But climate, soil and markets do not make the poultry 

 farm. They help make it. Poultry will thrive under a 

 great variety of conditions. It is not very often necessary 

 to blame the climate for failure to make profit in the 

 business. At the same time, market and climatic con- 

 ditions may make a difference between profit and loss, 

 though failures in poultry-keeping are usually due to 

 other causes. 



As to the Petaluma methods, I will discuss them in 

 the following order: First, housing; second, feeding; third, 

 incubation and brooding. 



Housing 



The colony house is practically the only house in use 

 on the farms at Petaluma, and there is a good deal of 

 sameness about their construction. In studying the 

 methods of housing, one of the first questions that c:i' 

 to me was, where did these Petaluma poultrymen i 

 authorities for their methods? It looked to me as though 

 they had been careful to read every poultry book and 

 every poultry paper on the subject and then gone and 

 done the exact opposite. In speaking of housing, I will 

 speak also of land or yarding conditions. 



The house may be perfect and yet the outdoor condi- 

 tions may be such as to bring disaster. I think I could 

 show, if I had time and space, that fowls will thrive in a 

 great variety of houses if the outdoor conditions are 

 right. The house is often blamed unjustly for failures. 



The colony house and the colony house system of 

 yarding, in my opinion, has had as much to do with the 

 success of Petaluma as any other thing. 



The prevailing type of house, on the small farms, as 

 well as the large, is a house built of a size that may be 

 easily moved by a team of horses. They don't vary much 

 in size, the usual size being about 7x12 ft. or 8x12 ft., with 

 a gable roof. It is built on the box plan of construction, the 

 frame consists of runners to which cross pieces are bolted 

 at the ends, the plates, and four rafters. The siding is 

 nailed on vertically, nailed to the runner and the plate at 

 top. These boards serve to support the sides without 

 studding. In some cases the cracks are battened; as often 

 they are not battened. On one of the most successful 

 farms there the houses are not battened and the owner 

 told me he had no trouble from roup from this cause. 

 He said, however, if he were to close the house up all 

 around and leave one crack for the wind to whistle 

 through he would expect all kinds of trouble from roup. 

 Some use shingles on the roof, while some use "shakes," 

 which are much cheaper. In some cases there is a floor 

 in the house, while in others there is none. One of the 

 best farms I saw had floored houses. The owner said 

 the floors facilitated cleaning. 



This house is made to accommodate 100 hens. That 

 means about one square foot of floor space per hen. 

 ere's where they run up against poultry authorities. 

 The "authorities" used to insist on about 10 square feet 

 per fowl. This is the bare fact, however, the large suc- 

 cessful farmers consider one square foot per fowl suf- 

 ficient. Under such conditions, of course, the whole 

 house is taken up with roost poles; that is, the whole 

 space is used for roosting. On some of the farms the 

 perches are run through the house; that is, holes are cut 

 in the siding at each end and the poles rest in these holes; 

 then when the house is to be cleaned out the poles are 

 pushed out and the whole house is clear for the man to 

 work in. I was informed that on a 6,000-hen farm two 

 men could clean out all the houses in a day and a half. 

 This work was done by scraping the droppings from the 

 floor, shoveling them into a sled, scattering lime on the 

 floor and hauling the droppings away. 



This house is used only for roosting; another house, 

 usually smaller, is used for laying. 



The colony system is this: A colony of fowls on the 

 large farms usually means 200 hens. That is, two hundred 

 hens run together on free range at a considerable dis- 

 tance from any other colony, say several hundred yards. 

 They have so much range that the grass is never eaten oflf 

 the fields. Two roosting houses and a laying house are 



