CRUDE IDEAS AND POOR METHODS. 



57 



Perhaps in a strictly systematic treiitment of the subject some of the minor matters should 

 ilje classiBed under the others and considered as subordinate to them; hut I do not thiols that 

 <o do so would give them any more force, and it seems to me much the better way to consider 

 ithem independeiilly. 



A number of errors similar to that of selecting a bad location, which has been mentioned, 

 :ue common. Sometimes these errors are the results of inexperience, sometimes they are due 

 U) the prejudices or follies of poultrymen of experience enough to have acquired good judgment 

 111 the matters iovolved. Of this kind are errors in poultry house construction— not the minor 

 eiiors, but the big mistakes — the mistakes that are so absurd that they are serious. There are 

 « great many poultrymen — and not all of them inexperienced novices — who, when they get 

 an idea which ihey think would work well in a poultry house, are not satisfied to teat it on a 

 small scale first, but must apply it, at whatever cost, to one large building at least — If not to 

 tue whole plant. 



Breeding House at Jordan Farm, Hingham, Mass. 



There are hundreds of poiiltry houses in this country where the incorporation of a few 

 "original ideas" is costing a great deal in extra work and wasted time; hundreds where 

 wrong construction makes it unnecessarily hard to keep fowls healthy and productive. There 

 is absolutely no excuse lor this, (or the construction of a good poultry house is about as 

 simple in theory as the construction of a. good dry goods box, and It is hardly more dilScult in 

 practice. 



Too many people seem to think that changing a good plan Is improving it, especially if they 

 think the idea of the change original with themselves; and such people are not apt to accept 

 the testimony of others as to results of putting their ideas into practice. As a rule the mis- 

 carriage of their plan will convince them that it is wrong. 



In justice to the general good sense of poultrymen, however, it ought to be said that the 

 majority of them are quick to see errors of this kind when use brings them out, and woftlfi be 

 -quick to correct them if they could take time to do so, or could stand the expense. 



