maind agricuivturai, experiment station. 67 



The Yards. 



The yards to most poultry houses are at the south, or on the 

 sheltered sides of the buildings, to afford protection during the 

 late fall and early spring, when cold winds are common. The 

 warmed house had yards on both north and south sides, with 

 convenient gates. This is a highly desirable arrangement since 

 it permits the alternate use of the two sets of rtms. In this 

 way trouble from soil contamination may be avoided. The 

 south yards were used until the cold winds were over in spring, 

 when the hens were allowed to go to the north yards, which 

 were well set in grass sod. The birds are kept shut in the 

 curtain front house until the weather is suitable and the ground 

 dried out in the spring. The necessity for getting them out of 

 the open-front house, where they are really subject to most of 

 the out-of-door conditions during the daytime, is not so great as 

 when they are confined in closed houses with walls and glass 

 windows. The clear, open fronts of the curtain-front houses 

 allow teams to pass close to the open doors of the pens for 

 cleaning out worn material and delivering new bedding, and 

 also allow attendants to enter and leave all pens from the out- 

 side walk and reach the feed room without passing through 

 intervening pens. 



Lice. 



One of the most difficult and trying problems which the poul- 

 try keeper has to meet is that of keeping his poultry houses and 

 stock reasonably free from lice, mites and other external para- 

 sites. There are many proprietary preparations on the market 

 designed to accomplish this end in one way or another. Most 

 of these preparations are, in proportion to their efficiency, very 

 expensive. Many of them have been tried at the Maine Experi- 

 ment Station. The Station has finally, however, come to follow 

 the procedure outlined in this circular to the exclusion of all 

 others, and with results which are extremely satisfactory. In- 

 deed, it may be said that vermin on the poultry or in the houses 

 no longer cause any appreciable annoyance in the work of the 

 Station plant. 



