No. 4.] MODERN POULTRY CULTURE. 105 



If one will clean it off every day and put in fresh plaster, 

 it is all right, but hardly one out of ten of the average 

 poultry keepers would do it, and the flocks are, I believe, 

 considerably injured in health. 



Question. If you keep fifty fowls, will they not do better 

 twenty-five in a yard ? 



Mr. CusHMAN. I think they will, luit if they have full 

 liberty I am not afraid of even forty in a house. Specialists 

 in poultry keeping advise about ten or fifteen hens in a 

 space ten by fifteen feet, and they claim that that number 

 of fowls will give more eggs than double that number kept 

 in the same space. But that applies to fowls kept in con- 

 finement, and where the quarters are restricted. On the 

 farm I do not believe in that. I think if every farmer 

 takes that scheme up he will make a mistake. I believe 

 it is a mistake to kill the hens every year. I do not 

 believe in having Brahmas two or three years old, and 

 depend on them for laying, or Plymouth Rocks or Wyan- 

 dottes either, if forced or kept confined. A three-year-old 

 White Leghorn or a two-year-old Minorca is better than a 

 pullet. 



Mr. S. S. Stetson (of Lakeville). Is there a disease 

 known as apoplexy? If so, the treatment? 



Mr. CusHMAN. I think fowls have a great many diseases 

 that people have and that other animals have, and we have 

 to exercise the same judgment in treating them that we 

 would with animals. I think that trouble usually comes 

 about from overfeeding or not enough exercise. Giving 

 light feed, exercise and green grass is about as good a 

 scheme as you can follow. Any fowl much out of sorts had 

 better have its head cut ofl' and be put under ground. If a 

 hen once has any trouble there is always a tendency to have 

 that trouble, and the chickens are liable to have the same 

 trouble. If you buy a fowl that has had the roup, you may 

 not see any signs of the disease in the chickens, but they 

 will get the roup, while those whose ancestors have not had 

 it will not have even colds. The hardiness of stock is one 

 of the most important pomts of the whole business. Roup, 

 according to my experience, comes from a cold that is 

 neglected and does not get well. In most cases disease in 



