No. 4.] POULTRY HOUSING. 405 



seems a cruel way, 3'et on the Avhole is more merciful ; for, 

 if the bu'd is properly taken care of after the comb is frosted, 

 it does not seem to suffer much, the comb soon heals, the 

 frosted tips drop off, and the l)ird is thereafter practically 

 immune from frost bite, and the keeper does not have to 

 give it special care. 



I make the foregoing suggestion to those who have male 

 birds with moderately large combs, and want to use cold 

 houses. I would not advise it for fowls with ver}^ large 

 combs, which if exposed would lose most of the comb. The 

 best way is to keep fowls with small combs not easily frosted, 

 or if one thinks he must have large-combed fowls, to select 

 for breeders those least susceptible to frost. There is a 

 great difference in individual birds in this respect. I have 

 had Leo-horn males with verv laroe combs that were never 

 frosted, though repeatedly exposed to temperatures at which 

 other Leghorn males and many males with smaller combs 

 were quite badly frostbitten. A few people using cold 

 houses for Leghorns report that their Leghorns that have 

 been all their lives kept in such houses do not suffer as much 

 from frosted combs as the same stock in closed houses. 

 While I would not deny that they may be correct, it seems 

 to me that conditions with them must be more moderate than 

 in this section, or the houses were not as open as those I 

 have been describing. As a matter of fact, large-combed 

 males are a deal of trouble where the winters are cold, no 

 matter M'hat kind of a house is used ; and practical poultry 

 keepers, whether on farms or elsewhere, will find it to their 

 advantage to breed for small combs. There is, I know, a 

 very general belief that the largest combed hens are the best 

 layers and the largest combed males the most vigorous sex- 

 ually, and hence the most useful as breeders ; but I think 

 this impression erroneous. The best-laying Barred Rocks I 

 ever owned had combs so small that the development of the 

 comb as the pullets began to lay was often not noticeable. 

 In Leghorns I have never found the size of the comb at all 

 reliable as an index of laying capacity ; my good laj^ers of 

 that breed have had large, medium and small combs, and I 

 have found all degrees of productivcjiess in all kinds of comb 



