IN QITANTITY FOR MARKET. 45 



the birds thus confined (as they are continually in this house) 

 are in excellent health and condition. 



They are fed from the rear of the pens. A narrow tramway 

 runs completely through the building, and the tenders place their 

 feed in small truck wagons, one commencing at one end and the 

 other at the farther extreme of this long four-feet-wide passage, 

 depositing the feed of mash or grains, as the case may be, in the 

 little hoppers as they proceed, until the two men meet in the 

 center of the passage, when the feeding is finished. Fresh 

 water is cai-ried through small iron pipes along this Entire range 

 of pens, and under each drinking-vessel are packed loose stones, 

 to a considerable depth, to drain off the spot and avoid damp- 

 ness around the inside of the pens. 



This immense laying-house is heated by steam or hot-water 

 pipes again, and the apartment is kept at continuous summer 

 heat (in the colder seasons) by this means ; whereby Mr. Baker 

 has found, with stimulating food and constant care, that his 

 fowls "lay well in winter time," as well as in the warm months 

 of the year. The wire meshing inclosing the open fronts of the 

 pens prevents damage from rapacious night vermin,, hawks, etc. 

 In each pen there are kept from twenty to twenty-five hens and 

 pullets, or about two thousand laying-fowls in aU ; and these are 

 of all sorts and kinds — well-bred, full-bred, cross-bred, etc., 

 — the majority being Asiatics, Leghorns, Spanish, Bucks Coun- 

 ty, Colored Dorkings, Houdans, and crosses of all these, most of 

 them being good birds, and all well suited to Mr. Baker's pur- 

 pose — to wit, laying of eggs only. 



Every description of food is given them, at times, in variety, 

 and plentiful suppUes of every kind of grain are always ready 

 at hand ; meal of all sorts, granulated bone, " Imperial Egg- 

 Food," bran, scraps, shells, shorts, etc., with which their bill of 

 fare is alternated, and green food, a little fresh meat, etc., is 

 frequently added as well. 



The cleanliness of the entire premises is a triumph. We 

 never saw any fowl-houses, large or small, so scrupulously nice, 

 fiom floor to roof, as were these ; and we are not surprised 

 that Mr. Baker is rarely troubled with hce, and has little sick- 

 ness, comparatively, among his enormous numbers of fowls, 

 young or old. 



Nor far from this building stands the cramming or forcing- 

 house, one hundred and twenty feet long by twenty-five feet 

 wide, \»hich is an unique affair, and quite novel in this coun- 

 try. This house is proportionately extensive and formidable, 



