No. 4.] POULTRY KEEPING. 69 



air, to a less extent. The inference is to build poultry houses 

 with tight walls on the exposed sides, and to provide for 

 the exclusion and escape of an excess of moisture. Poultry 

 houses should be built on a dry, porous, well-drained soil ; or, 

 wdien this is impracticable, the soil should be artificially 

 drained. If there is the least tendency for moisture to come 

 in through the soil, a cement floor laid over six inches of 

 soft coal cind(n-s, or a floor of wood put in well elevated above 

 the soil will remedy the trouble. Cold, dry air under a 

 floor of wood is less objectionable than an air saturated 

 with moisture. Dry air and dry floors tend to suppress bac- 

 terial and parasitic diseases. 



Sunlight is beneficial, in that it acts as a germicide, drives 

 out moisture and exerts a favorable influence on the fowls. 

 Damp, dark and cold quarters are as injurious to the health 

 of poultry as of persons. 



In stating what I believe experience has taught me, 

 namely, that it is impossible to maintain the health standards 

 of fowls raised for successive years in confinement, I am 

 aware that I am opening the way for an attack by some 

 very successful poultrymen with extended experience to sup- 

 port their arguments in opposition to the ground I have 

 taken. I am nevertheless convinced that my belief is not 

 without some foundation. Chicks in restricted quarters are 

 constantly surrounded with those things which have a ten- 

 dency to inhibit and suppress growth. In confinement they 

 are more subject to infection with disease-producing bac- 

 teria and animal parasites, that are the cause of the majority 

 of the fowl diseases. Chicks in close confinement fail to 

 obtain the variety of food and the exercise that those raised 

 on free range get, both of which are favorable to strong and 

 early development. 



Last spring I supplied two friends wnth two settings of 

 eggs from my pen of Wyandottos. These were hatched under 

 hens, with average results. At the time these were set I 

 already had eggs nearly ready to hatch. My owm chicks 

 are raised under fairly favorable conditions as regards free 

 range, being kept in an enclosed grass yard about 80 feet 

 square, from which all hens except those brooding the chicks 



