136 POULTRY-CRAFT. 
hours, ventilation requires close attention. Moisture rapidly collects on walls 
and ceilings. Damp walls are good conductors of heat, and too quickly 
equalize inside and outside temperatures. To keep the walls dry there must 
be good circulation of air through the house for some hours daily. This 
applies to clear cold as well as to wet cold weather. A house facing south 
is likely to become much too warm through the middle of the day if closed 
tight on a clear day, no matter how cold. Whenever the weather permits — 
that is, whenever a storm would not sweep in at open doors and windows — 
the poultry house should be well opened up, especially through the middle of 
the day. The windows of a house fronting south should be open as much 
and as long as the house can be kept comfortable with them open. They 
should be both opened and closed gradually; not opened wide all at once 
after the house has become over-warm, and closed tight all at once when it 
has turned cold after sundown. A house with two rows of pens, facing east 
and west,.and with large doors at the north and south ends of the passage, 
and small doors in the east and west sides, is nicely aired by leaving the two 
large doors open; or by opening all the small doors, or one large door and 
the small doors on one side. The direction and force of the wind have to be 
considered. 
A good general rule for cold weather ventilation, ts to open the house as 
much as can be done, and still leave it at a comfortable temperature for the 
person doing the work tn tt. 
181. In Warm Winter Weather, great caution needs to be observed in 
feeding. If corn has been fed generously the quantity given should be much 
reduced. Most cases of liver disease date from a warm spell in winter. 
Heavy feeding and highly carbonaceous rations are continued when, for the 
time, the hens need a narrower ration and much less food. In warm winter 
weather mashes should have the proportions of hay or vegetables and of bran 
somewhat increased ; oats should be substituted for a part of the corn fed. It 
is the more needful to watch this point, because the bad effects of injudicious 
feeding at such seasons are rarely discerned, either in the condition of the 
fowl or in the egg yield, until disease is in an advanced stage. Most cases of 
liver disease do not develop outward symptoms for some weeks, or even 
months. 
182. Care of Laying Stock in the Spring.— In the spring hens need 
and will stand very heavy feeding; though it takes less of the food to keep 
them warm, it takes considerably more for egg material. If fed no more 
than they were in the winter, most hens quickly ‘‘ lay themselves poor.” The 
novice is not apt to discover this state of affairs until his hens begin to stop 
laying, exhausted, and not likely to again be reliably profitable layers. Many 
hens which should have been good layers for several years, are spoiled in this 
way; and it is the best hens that are most likely to suffer. Whoever will keep 
