402 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



in methods of operation, which will give more protection in 

 the house without reducinij too much the circulation of air 

 ill it. I think this medium form of construction must be 

 much nearer the cold than the warm plan of housing ; for 

 when air is admitted freely, as it should be, the house cannot 

 be kept very warm ; and when the house cannot be kept 

 warm, it is superfluous to make walls thick, and adds un- 

 necessarily to the cost of construction. A wall of inch 

 boards covered with a good building }«i})er is as tight as if it 

 were a foot thick. If a house is built with tight back, ends 

 and roof, and has wide doors and good-sized windoAVS in 

 front, and doors and windows are kept open as much as is 

 necessary to prevent moisture from collecting on the w^alls 

 and lower side of roof, the air will be ijood in that house, 

 and the fowls healthy as far as health depends on good air. 

 In a cold climate, such a house will be cold, — not as cold as 

 outside, but still a cold house. 



The special interest farmers have in this plan of housing 

 fowls is in the demonstration it makes of the fact that there 

 may be good egg in-oduction in a cold house ; and that one 

 need not despair of getting eggs in winter l)ecause his 

 poultry houses are cold, or think that when he fails to get 

 egg's in winter it is because his houses are cold. On most 

 farms at present the poultry houses are of the class of those 

 I use ; and I find a great many farmers have been under the 

 impression that it was useless to put forth special efforts to 

 get winter eggs from poultry in such houses. The fact is 

 that the house is not a matter of prime importance, except 

 that in a warm, tight house that is kept shut up too much 

 the hens are more likely to go out of condition and fail to 

 lay than in a cold house ; and, again, hens that do lay well 

 in a warm-house are apt to become de])ilitated and weak, and 

 unfit for future usefulness either as layers or breeders. 



The thing of first lni[)ortance in the production of Avintcr 

 eggs is to have the fowls ready fo lay about the lieginning of 

 winter ; after that, the point of greatest importance is to feed 

 well. These are the things without which you cannot get eggs 

 until they are full grown. Old hens do not lay j^rofitably 

 until they have molted. Both })ullets and hens in laying 



