35 



as they sat on the roosts were well coated with snow. The tips of the 

 hens' combs were somewhat frosted (no male was put in the house), 

 but these hens gave me about a forty per cent egg peld in January, 

 1904. There were very few hens in any kind of house anywhere doing 

 better at that time. 



During the several winters covered by the experiments mentioned my 

 fowls were cared for b}- myself when at home, at other times by different 

 members of the household, none of whom had any particular interest in 

 or skill in feeding fowls. Our one rule for feeding was to be sure that 

 the hens had an abundance. In the first half of the winter 1 had to be 

 away so much that I found it impossible to keep accurate egg records. 

 When I relied on others, they forgot ; and so I gave up thought of 

 making statistical figures complete, concluding that circumstances lim- 

 ited me to general demonstrations of a few leading facts, and the exact 

 results possible in cold houses and comparison of these with results in 

 other houses would have to be left to others. My trials demonstrated 

 that hens could be kept healthy and giving average good egg yields in 

 cold, open houses. So far as T could judge, they consumed no more 

 food than when kept in warm houses, though theoretit-ally it should 

 have required more. 



Last winter the only item of experience in my poultry yard having a 

 further bearing on this subject was the performance of a pen of Jul}*- 

 hatched Single-combed White Orpingtons. These were put in an old 

 poultry house that was sheathed, papered and covered with common 

 lapped siding on the sides and with shingles on the roof. The front of 

 this house was about half glass, an immovable window, and there was 

 a half-window in each end, the door being at the north-west corner. 

 The growth of an aj^ple tree near the house had forced a board from 

 the front next the roof, and there was an opening here the length of the 

 house wide enough " to throw a cat through.'' The west window was 

 wide open all winter. The pullets in this house had been sold early in 

 January, and, as I was expecting to shiji them any day, we kept no 

 record of their laying. The buyer failed to take them ; but, as I still 

 intended to let them go, and as some weeks had passed with no records 

 kept, we let them go along unrecorded. Through January, February 

 and March these pullets, nine in number, laid rarely less than seven 

 eggs a day, and often nine for several days in succession. Nearly all 

 their combs were somewhat frosted, and the comb of the male at one 

 time qi;ite badly frosted. 



Now, of what use was it to demonstrate that warm hou.ses are not 

 essential to egg production, and that hens can be kept healthy and pro- 

 ductive in very cold houses ? 



I went to the extreme, giving my fowls houses that were mere shel- 

 ters, to show more convincingly, l)y extreme illustrations, that warm 

 houses, which are more expensive to construct and require more careful 

 attention to operate, were not absolutely essential. My tests, though 

 not furnishing statistics, do show conclusively that i.'gg production is not 

 necessarily dependent upon " spring " conditions ; and that the cold, 

 open house for poultry is the style of house in which the labor of caring 



