28 



BULLETIN OF 



Massachusetts Boaed of Ageiculture. 



PRACTICAL POULTRY HOUSING. 



By John H. Robinson, Editor of " Farin-ro%iltry," Boston, Mass. 



At several of the farmers' institutes in this State which it has been my 

 privilege to address during the past year, the description of some poul- 

 try houses I am using and explanation of reasons for using them has 

 excited enough interest to make me think farmers throughout the State 

 may be equally interested in that subject. 



The ideas and principles upon which this method of housing poultry 

 is based are not new, nor are they at all novel. On the contrary, they 

 are very old and very common. The noteworthy thing about them is 

 that they have not until within a few years seemed to those looking for 

 the best ways of housing poultry to be worth serious consideration. 

 For several years now they have been much discussed in the poultry 

 press, and the general interest in them and increasing tendency to use 

 them marks what is probably the last stage in the reaction from the 

 plans and methods most in favor since the interest in better results from 

 poultry culture began to assume its present importance. 



For a great many years authorities on poultry keeping have advo- 

 cated Avarm, tightly built poultry houses. They have held that, inas- 

 much as hens naturally laid best during the spring, the essential thing 

 (if one wanted to get eggs in winter) was to reproduce spring condi- 

 tions, especially temperature. So, with double and triple walls, with 

 dead air spaces, with double sash on the windows, with large windows 

 to admit as much sunlight as possible by day and with roosting rooms 

 and closets to shut the fowls up close and keep them warm in at night, 

 they have tried to approximate spring conditions. In a degree they have 

 succeeded, as far as temperature is concerned, — that is to say they have 

 succeeded in maintaining a higher temperature in the poultry houses 

 than is usually found in out buildings for live stock. They have pro- 

 tected the fowls from the extremes of winter weather. 



But the temperature is only a part of spring conditions. In spring 

 and summer fowls have, with the higher temperatures, abundance of air 



