184 COMMON SENSE 
after May, the price does not rise very rapidly. This is probably 
owing to the fact that the demand falls off somewhat during 
the early summer months, but after a time the price adapts itself 
to the supply, and it was to meet this state of things that I de- 
pended upon my fall broods. 
During the spring, I sold off all the old fowls and all the culls, 
reducing my stock very considerably, and making room for the 
young pullets. ‘hese I endeavored to colonize in lots having 
special characteristics—each lot being placed in its own house, so 
that a record might be kept of the results derived from it. ‘Thus 
in one house and yard we kept pullets which were a cross of 
White Leghorn and Light Brahma, and of a certain age, and no 
other birds of a different kind and age were admitted to this yard. 
‘This made the numbers in the different houses vary, it is true, but 
it enabled us to get the real average results from the different 
breeds and crosses, and this was what I wanted. 
Early in the second season, I erected enough houses to make 
up seventeen, besides the old house and the breeding coops. ‘Ihe 
latter were all brought together and a glass shed erected in 
front of them. This shed was divided into as many compart- 
ments as there were coops, and the yards radiated in a fan- 
shaped form, from the coops as a centre. In this way the coops 
and sheds sheltered each other, so that the hens were kept com- 
fortable, and many of them kept on laying well on into the winter. 
But with all my efforts, I found it impossible to get enough eggs of 
the second cross to supply my needs for my very early hatches, 
and so I was obliged to use those of the third cross. But by using 
a thoroughbred male of a different strain, I succeeded very well. 
‘The amount of eggs to be had from these breeding coops, how- 
ever, is merely a question of management, and after the second 
season I was not troubled on this score. And since I obtained a 
good strain of the Plymouth Rocks, I have had no trouble at all. 
The Plymouth Rocks are comparatively a new race, and have not a 
great deal of potency. ‘The hens, mated with vigorous White Leg- 
horn cocks, give remarkably fine results, and we are always able 
to get as many early chickens of this cross as we need. 
