MAINE AGRICULTLRAL EXPHRfMEXT STATION. 5/ 



this should be so. The air in a roosting closet when it is opened 

 in the morning is plainly bad. The fact that it is warm in no 

 way offsets physiotogically the evils of its lack of oxygen and 

 excess of carbon dioxide, ammoniacal vapors and other exhala- 

 tions from the bodies of the birds. 



For some time past it has been felt that the roosting closet 

 was at least unnecessary, if not in fact a positive evil. Conse- 

 quently the time of beginning to close the roost curtain in the 

 fall has been each year longer delayed. Finally in the fall of 

 1910 it was decided not to use these curtains at all during the 

 winter. Consecjuently they were taken out of the houses, or 

 spiked to the roof as the case might be. The winter of 1910-11 

 was a severe one. On several occasions the temperature 

 dropped to 30 degrees below zero. Yet during this winter the 

 mortality was exceptionally low and the egg production excep- 

 tionally high. The roost curtain will not again be used at this 

 Station. 



CURTATX^-I'ROXT HOUSES. 



The result of the use of the "pioneer" house indicated that 

 this was essentially a correct S3^stem of treating and housing 

 hens, and it was decided to build several houses on the same 

 plan and join them together under one roof as one house. 



A curtain-front house 12 feet wide by 150 feet long, known as 

 house No. 2, was erected in 1903. The back wall is 5 feet 6 

 inches high from floor to top of plate inside, and the front wall 

 is 6 feet 8 inches high. The roof is of unequal span, the ridge 

 being 4 feet in from the front wall ; and the height of the ridge 

 above the floor is 9 feet. The sills are 4 by 6 inches in size and 

 rest on a rough stone wall laid on the surface of the ground. A 

 central sill gives support to the floor. The floor timbers are 2 by 8 

 inches in size and are placed 2 feet apart ; the floor is of two 

 thicknesses of hemlock boards. All the rest of the frame is of 2 

 by 4 inch stuff'. The building is boarded, papered, and shingled 

 on roof and walls. The rear wall and 4 feet of the lower part 

 of the rear roof are ceiled on the inside of the studding and 

 plates, and the space between inner and outer walls is packed 

 very hard with dry sawdust. In order to make the sawdust 

 packing continuous between the wall and roof, the wall ceiling 

 is carried up to within 6 inches of the plate: then follows up 



