126 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



was gradually enlarged, until in 1898 Mr. Hunter had two 

 houses respectively 150 and 168 feet in length, giving 27 

 pens each 12 feet square, housing, at 15 birds in a pen, 405 

 fowls. The second house was given yards 25 feet longer 

 or 125 feet, and in this, with 15 birds, grass keeps green 

 all the growing season the nearest 20 or 30 feet are 

 worn bare, but the farthest 50 feet gets so long that it 

 has to be cut several times each season. It will easily be 

 seen that such houses, with yards all supposed to be 125 feet 

 long, which is to be preferred, take just about 400 fowls on 

 one acre. 



Further experiment, however, tended to show that the 

 closed houses alone were not best for the American climate, 

 which compels the fowls to be often confined altogether in 

 winter. Mr. Hunter now prefers to build a cheaper and 

 lower range of shedding without a passage-way, 10 feet 

 wide, and to give each pen 18 feet of it, divided into 8 by 10 

 of closed house, and 10 by 10 of wire-fronted shed, which also 

 in some weathers has to be closed by semi-transparent 

 curtains of waterproof muslin. In each of these he places 

 25 fowls. The yards are of same length as above, but he 

 prefers to divide them, giving each pen a single run 50 feet 

 long, and every pair opening into a double run of grass 

 36 by 75 feet, in which each flock runs on alternate days. 

 (This alternate plan we doubt the wisdom of.) Every 

 roosting-house has a good window, which swings open if 

 required. Thus, in hot weather there can be the freest 

 ventilation, while in cold all can be shut in. The run 

 partitions are two feet of boarding surmounted by foui 

 feet of two-inch netting. 



The results depend upon breeding management. The 

 pullets are bred for time of laying as well as for amount of 

 laying. Mr. Hunter has found it, he says, " easy to get a 50 

 per cent, egg yield in November and December, 60 per cent. 



