HOW I BEGAN AS AN EGG-FARMER 61 
the shy ones. With warm moist food many fowls stuff them- 
selves and go to sleep instead of remaining active and keeping in 
condition for laying. With dry food a hen cannot take more than 
a few mouthfuls at a time. She has then to run away to drink, 
and is thus kept active. Mixing wet food is a tricky and delicate 
problem. One may easily make it too moist or too dry. To be 
right it must be “just so.” It is better, easier and cheaper to 
allow the fowl to mix the food to her own liking. Feed it to her 
dry and she will do the rest. One can mix enough dry food to 
last for a week. Place it in a hopper and the feeding is done for 
seven days, excepting for the scattering of grain in the litter 
night and morning. If poultry are kept on a large scale the labour 
saving is simply enormous. At least one man’s wages will be 
saved on every thousand birds. 
It is not much use feeding well if one does not house the birds 
comfortably. Feeding and housing are complementary and inter- 
dependent. To feed a bird well and to place her in a cold, draughty 
house is to take away with one hand what you have given with 
the other. The purpose of food is to supply the necessary 
elements for the wear and tear of the body, for the creative 
impulse—which means eggs—and for the proper supply of 
heat. The blood heat of fowls is 104°, or fully 5° above that 
of the human body, and therefore a steady supply of fuel is 
necessary to her health, If you put her in a cold house she will 
spend her vital energy in trying to keep warm instead of conduct- 
ing the natural process of laying eggs. To get a full supply of eggs 
the fowl must not have to contend with the disturbing elements of 
cold and draughts. She should be encouraged to devote all her 
energies to egg-production. In other words, she should be kept 
in conditions that render her bright, happy and healthy. How 
often does one see fowls sitting around huddled up, feathers all 
raised in an attempt to keep warm. A sad, miserable hen will 
not lay eggs. Therefore give her a snug, warm house, of ample 
proportions, with plenty of clean litter where she may scratch and 
prosper. Make her winter conditions—we have eight months 
of them—as comfortable as her summer conditions and she will 
