POULTRY-HOUSES 111 
Where a scratching-shed is attached to the house so that the 
birds can spend the greater part of the day away from their sleep- 
ing quarters the number of fowls kept can be added to by anything 
up to 50 per cent. 
I strongly recommend all intensive houses to be fitted with 
wooden floors. By this means the house can be kept in a much 
more sanitary condition than if the floor is composed of any 
earthy material. Earth floors retain and absorb the manure from 
the fowls, and even if dug up frequently and replaced with fresh 
soil the house never smells so sweet and clean as when a wooden 
floor is kept fresh with peat moss, sawdust or straw. Not only 
so, but the wooden floor is cheaper in the end. All houses with 
wooden floors should be raised six or eight inches from the ground 
on bricks. By this means a fresh current of air will keep the floor 
dry, while vermin in the form of mice or rats will be unable to find 
their way in. Cement is good enough for a floor, but compared 
with wood is hard and cold, and after all it is little if any cheaper. 
As I have said, houses can be designed to meet the taste of the 
owner provided all the necessary points I have enumerated are 
included. In my opinion one of the best types of houses for small 
or large flocks are those that are air-tight at the back and sides and 
open in front with alean-to roof. These houses are largely adopted 
in America and also among the larger poultry-farmers in this 
country, and while they have the advantage of being the cheapest 
type of house they are also among the most successful. I call 
a house “successful” that keeps the birds in perfect comfort 
and health and produces the largest yield of eggs. I know that 
houses of themselves will not produce eggs, but given the same 
birds some houses will return a larger percentage of eggs than 
others. I am certain that a light and airy house will conduce to 
egg-laying and that a dark and stuffy house will not. Light and 
air are in my opinion, next to food, the biggest factors in the pro- 
duction of eggs. If the house is more than eight feet deep I ad- 
vocate windows at the back of the house as well as windows at the 
front. For smaller houses, say six to eight feet deep, the back 
windows should be under the dropping-board so that they will 
