2b IND OF HOUSE TO BUILD | 29 
not be used unless the temperature is much below 
freezing and burlap or old bagging run on a wire 
will answer as well as muslin tacked to a frame. 
It should strike the front of the dropping boards or 
hang to the floor. The great advantage in cloth is 
that it admits air freely but without drafts. Ex- 
periments have shown that buildings where muslin 
has been used at the windows have been only a de- 
gree or two colder than when glass was used, for 
glass radiates cold. 
Poultry houses in the South need no protection 
at the windows and the type which has the entire 
front open gives full satisfaction. Indeed, open- 
front houses are being largely used in the most 
northerly states and many poultry keepers are en- 
thusiastic in praise of them. They certainly simplify 
the keeping of poultry, for there are neither win- 
dows nor curtains to look after, the front of the 
house being entirely open except that it is covered 
with poultry netting to keep the birds in and in- 
truders out. In some cases a canvas curtain is 
dropped over the front when necessary to keep out 
snow or a beating rain, and occasionally curtains 
are used in front of the perches on extremely cold 
nights, but the average owner of an open-front house 
