14 POULTRY DISEASES AND THEIR TREATM,i:\T. 



B. Fresh Air and Light. — Too great stress cannot be laid on 

 the importance of plenty of fresh air in the poultry house if the 

 birds are to keep in good condition. And it must be remem- 

 bered in this connection that "fresh" air, and cold stagnant air 

 are two very different things. Too many of the types of curtain 

 front and so-called "fresh air" houses now in use are without 

 any provision other than an obliging southerly wind, to insure the 

 circulation or changing of air within the house. Even with an 

 open front house it is wise to provide for a circulation of air 

 in such way that direct drafts cannot strike the birds. This 

 apphes not only to the housing of adult birds in laying houses, 

 but also to the case of young stock in colony houses on the 

 range.* Further a circulation of fresh air under the hover in 

 artificial rearing is greatly to be desired and will have a marked 

 effect on the health and vigor of the chicks. 



Not only should the poultry house be such as to furnish plenty 

 of fresh air, but it should also be light. The prime importance 

 of sunlight in sanitation is universally recognized by medical 

 authorities. Disease germs cannot stand prolonged exposure to 

 the direct rays of the sun. Sunlight is Nature's great disin- 

 fectant. Its importance is no less in poultry than in human sani- 

 tation. The following statement made some years ago (1904) 

 by a writer signing himself "M" in Farm Poultry (Vol. 15) 

 brings home in a few words the importance of having plenty of 

 light in the poultry house. 



"Light in the poultry house has been found by a writer a 

 great help in keeping the house clean and keeping the fowls 

 healthy. Probably there is no greater assistance to the diseases 

 of poultry than dark and damp houses, and dark houses are 

 frequently damp. In recent years I have had both kinds of ex- 

 perience, those with the hens confined in a large, dry and light 

 house, and with hens confined in a dark house in which a sin- 

 gle window looking towards the setting sun furnished the only 

 light. Being forced to use the latter building for an entire 

 winter I found it impossible to get it thoroughly dried out after 

 a rain had rendered the walls damp. By spring some of the 

 fowls that had been confined there began to die of a mysterious 



*See in this connection the modification of the Maine Sfation colony 

 house to insure circulation of air, as given in U. S. Dept. Agr. Farm- 

 ers' Bulletin 357. 



