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lor them can be reduced to the minimum. Considered in connection 

 with the general difficulties with tight buildings, they indicate also that 

 the safest and most profitable and practical type of house for most 

 poultry keepers is the house that is so constructed that it does not 

 require close attention from the poultry keeper to keep conditions in it 

 safe. They have not developed what is the best construction of house. 

 It is reasonable to assume that a little better construction than 1 have 

 used would be better, — would afford more protection, without making 

 conditions that interfere with the steady renewal, in abundance, of sup- 

 plies of fresh air. 



Between the house so tightly built that the ventilation in it is verj' 

 bad, and one so open that the temperature in it is but slightly higher 

 than out doors in extremest cold weather, there is a medium form of 

 constiniction and an intermediate in methods of operation, which will 

 give more protection in the house without reducing too much the cir- 

 culation of air in 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 unnecessarily to the cost of construction. A wall 

 of inch boards covered with a good building paper 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 windows in front, and doors and 

 windows are kept open as much as is necessary to prevent moisture 

 from collecting on the walls and lower side of roof, the air will be 

 good 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 pro- 

 duction in a cold house ; and that one need not despair of getting eggs 

 in winter because his poultry houses are cold, or think that when he 

 fails to get eggs 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 impor- 

 tance, 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 debilitated and weak, and unfit for future usefulness either as 

 layers or breeders. 



The thing of first importance in the production of winter eggs is to 

 have the fowls ready to lay about the beginning 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 profitably until they have molted. Both pullets and hens in 

 laying condition must have food enough to maintain themselves, and 

 enough more to convert into eggs. In the spring a hen may produce 



