CARING FOR THE LOFTS 



93 



free from vermin than a poultry house. Filth and vermin 

 can cause a breeder far more trouble than we have space to 

 mention. 



Do not let your property get in bad repair but keep on the 

 lookout for a leak in the roof, a torn piece of roofing, sagging 

 doors, etc. The writer visited a plant in one of the neighboring 

 states some years ago and found the owner very much dis- 

 couraged and ready to give u)), in fact he was just beginning 

 to advertise his birds for sale. He \\as not making anything, 



A LOFT OF SILVER KINGS 

 Nolo liow ciran t-verjthing- i.'!. — Photo from Jack M. Piul, Stockton, Calif. 



his birds would not produce, ^^'e w alked from pen to pen. The 

 ground was so sour that it would have killed anything kept 

 on it. I will venture to say that it had not been spaded in two 

 years. Open pans were used for providing the drinking water 

 for the birds and they were positively filthy, they showed no 

 signs of having been scalded in months. But above all the roof 

 in eighty per cent of the pens was leaking to such an extent 

 that one could see daylight through it. It had rained in the 

 lofts until the floor was covered with slick slimy manure, the 



