GENERAL REMARKS 157 
acres for the entire flock, but more space 
would have been preferable. Growing chick- 
ens need plenty of range to build up good 
strong constitutions to fulfil their mission in 
life; just as boys and girls need active out- 
door life to develop them into robust men 
and women. Later in life these children by 
reason of their early, healthful lives, are able 
to stand confinement in offices and factories 
on the same plan that old hens can be con- 
fined to small space and still do well. 
Hens to be used as breeders, however, 
should be housed under the same favorable 
conditions that made them hardy pullets, 
for they are to be the layers of the eggs from 
which other chickens are to be hatched, there- 
fore, need to be rugged and healthy to the 
last degree. To keep their good health and 
not impair their constitutions, they must be 
kept under the best conditions—those nearest 
to Nature—life in the open on the ground. 
Last winter I put 15 hens and a rooster in 
each of four pens 10x12 feet in one end of my 
laying house, for breeders, selecting of course 
the best. They out-layed, in comparison, 
the balance of the flock in the large room, 
proving the previous remarks under “laying 
house.” For breeding purposes, however, 
