54 



The Business Hen. 



Fig. 28. 

 A LAIUi* HEATER. 



is cloudy rest of the time, and this exceptional 

 year these things things happen every day in the 

 week. But this warm henhouse is giving 40 to 

 53 eggs a day for the past six weeks from 125 

 hens, 75 pullets, and 50 old hens, and 40 degrees 

 below absolutely had no effect otherwise than to 

 increase the production two eggs per day. This 

 room is ceiled upon the inside with unmatched 

 boards, the side walls filled with straw, about 10 

 inches space. In the lott straw is put in loosely, 

 and the space between the boards caused by 

 shrinkage is left open into the loose straw above 

 The door into the room does not shut air tight, 

 and therefore serves as an intake for fresh air; 

 then very slowly passing into the straw above. 

 In this way it would seem that a much slower circulation takes place than 

 would if there was an opening cut directly into the loft and the circulation 

 left free, as it would through even an ordinary out-take flue. I do not 

 feel like speaking with much authority upon the hen business, but it is 

 rather a lingering belief that henhouses as a rule are troubled with too 

 much change of air rather than, a lack of it, and furthermore that the 

 apparent need of ventilation when one goes into a house comes largely 

 from filth, and a lack of sanitation due to droppings long preserved. 1 

 am not inclined to belittle the necessity of pure air, but to magnify the 

 value of cleanliness, and so secure pure air with less frequent change. 

 There is ground for debate whether open dead air spaces are preferable 

 to stuffed walls. My preference is for the stuffed space, provided it is 

 wide enough, for this reason : Each straw is hollow and cannot be abso- 

 lutely (if dry) packed so closely to another that there will not be air 

 between them, and hence with this means of insulation there will be pro- 

 vided a multitude of dead-air spaces, at moderate cost, while to secure even 

 two spaces with lumber at $20 per 1,000 means rapidly increasing cost 

 and there certainly should not be less than two. Furthermore, no lumber 

 can be so sound and thoroughly seasoned that 

 there will not, even if painted, be some shrink- 

 age after a few years' use, and when these pre- 

 viously considered dead-air spaces have open- 

 ings they are no longer dead-air spaces, because 

 air circulates in them and heat is quickly carried 

 away. A mistake, however, is often made when 

 stuffing is to be practiced in forming the space 

 2 too narrow. It should ordinarily be not less 



HOUSE ON WHEELS. than 10 inches, more or less, perhaps, accord- 



