2 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
IAN. 4 
chickens. I have 152 hen-houses eight 
feet square, facing south. Instead of glass 
I use one-inch-mesh wire netting. I have 
my houses in my apple orchard, about three 
rods apart, and keep 12 hens to each house. 
I make them lay well all winter. Besides 
the 152 hen-houses eight feet square, I have 
some larger ones. 
Hancock, N. H. 
FROM A. M. WOOD. 
I inclose a rough sketch of poultry- 
houses on my place, see Fig. 8. The 
shape of the house gives plenty of floor 
room for the poultry, and saves quite 
a considerable sum in the lumber bill. 
Front 11 feet high; rear five feet; roof 
12 feet and made of boards: floor area 
16x32 feet nearly, in two sections, divided 
by lattice-work into rooms 16x16 feet each. 
The houses face the south. In summer 
the sun shines on the edge of the roof. The 
windows hung from the top can be raised 
outward and are covered with matting and 
front sun-shades. In winter the sun is low 
and shines squarely into the windows. 
Geneseo, N. Y. 
FROM MRS. F. L. AVERY. 
I would have the glass in any number of 
poultry houses of the same length as it is 
in one house 60 feet long recently^ built on 
our farm. The house faces the south, and 
has two divisions making three apartments 
each 12x20 feet. The divisions are^of 
matched boards like the rest of the 
building with a door in each one. In the 
center of each room two large windows are 
placed together so as to give a double space 
of sunshine for biddy to stretch herself in. 
I often find the whole number (40) enjoying 
a sun-bath. The happiest occupants of the 
house are those in the east end, and at feed¬ 
ing time they are impatient for me to open 
the east door so tLat they can get into the 
morning sun. Last winter I had some 
Light Brahmas that enjoyed life immensely 
in a room with window and door in the 
East and a window in the south side. This 
room was so warm and pleasant that it 
made one as happy as the fowls themselves 
to go inside. In long houses, I think the best 
results are obtained from south-facing 
windows as the sun comes in about 10 A. M. 
and stays till he sets. I also like a door (of 
full size) to open into each yard on the 
south side. For small houses of one room 
only, I would have an east window, and a 
door and a window on the south. I do not 
believe in too much glass, however, for a 
house having too much, cools off too quickly 
when the sun disappears. I would like a 
discussion on floors versus the ground for 
poultry houses. 
East Pepperell, Mass. 
FROM PHILANDER WILLIAMS. 
I prefer the windows in a poultry-house 
on the south side and I use common win¬ 
dows with two sashes so they can be raised 
or lowered in summer. I would also have 
one window on the east end to catch the 
sun in the morning. I do not believe in 
having the south side all glass, but there 
should be one southern window in an 
apartment. If I were troubled with too 
much heat I would have curtains. I know 
many say that ample windows cause too 
much heat by day and too much cold at 
night, but I will risk that. The main 
thing, as I view it, is to get the sun by day 
and never mind the night. 
Taunton, Mass. 
FROM A. P. ALLEN. 
In the construction of a poultry-house I 
would not advise the use of much glass. 
My experience, covering a period of 13 
years, in the breeding and shipping of thor¬ 
oughbred poultry, has satisfied me that 
glass should not be used with the intention 
of depending on it as a means of transmit¬ 
ting a heat supply, but enough should be 
used to admit the necessary amount of 
light. Fowls are not hot-house plants, 
and houses for them built on the green¬ 
house plan are failures. Poultry enjoy 
sunshine but should have it in reasonable 
doses. My houses are each built to accom¬ 
modate from 25 to 50 fowls, and each is 
divided into two apartments, one for roost¬ 
ing and laying, and the other for feeding 
purposes. This arrangement is for laying 
fowls; for chicks and growing stock differ¬ 
ent quarters are required. As hens prefer 
a secluded place for nesting purposes, but 
little glass is used in the apartment set 
apart for this purpose, and that little is 
placed where it will interfere the least with 
the inside arrangements, without regard to 
the points of the compass. For the feeding 
room an exposure to the southeast is to be 
preferred, and if half the light can be ad¬ 
mitted from the southwest it makes the 
ighting arrangement perfect. The glass, 
however, shculd be placed in ti e sides of 
the building and not in the roof. 
Meadville, Pa. 
FROM A. J. PERKINS. 
About 10 years ago I built a poultry 
house 13x40 feet with glass on the east side. 
The sun would shine on the windows from 
sunrise until about two o’clock ; but during 
winter in afternoons and nights the temper¬ 
ature was very low in the house. Two years 
ago I built another house 16x40 feet with 
glass on the south side or a little west of 
south. The sun would shine ou the windows 
from about nine o’clock in the morning un¬ 
til sundown. Last winter when the weather 
was 10 or 15 degrees below zero outside, on 
closing the doors and ventilators a ther¬ 
mometer inside would register 50 to 60 de¬ 
grees before night owing to the heat of the 
and the heat is almost intolerable unless 
the glass be covered. Were I to build a 
new house for poultry I would place the 
glass in the east and west ends thereof. In 
regard to extreme cold during the night, I 
cannot conceive the benefit to be derived 
from glass, w'hether it be east, west, north 
or south side. The air is equally cold in all 
directions during the night. The same ex¬ 
posure in either direction, must admit the 
same amount of frost. 
Scliraalenburgh, N. J. 
FROM HENRY HALES. 
Of the various points to be considered in 
building a poultry house, the location of 
the windows is one of the most important. 
There are three things to be taken into ac¬ 
count: First, light; second, sun-heat; and 
third, the retention of heat. For light 
A VERMONT MILK ROOM. Fig. 3. See Page i. 
sun alone, and it would not freeze inside at 
night. In the summer I remove the glass 
and cover the openings with wire netting, 
and the building is cool all summer even 
during the warmest nights. In fair weather 
in summer the fowls are in the yards most 
of the time during the day. 
Johnstown, N. Y. 
FROM JAMES RANKIN. 
A well arranged poultry house should 
face a little to the east of south so that the 
morning sun in winter will strike upon the 
glass. A house thus located will always 
be warm enough in the afternoon with the 
oblique rays of the sun striking in. Too 
much glass is worse than none at all, as it 
means extremes of heat and cold. Glass 
will let out as much heat during the night 
as it will admit during the day. People 
generally put by far too much glass in their 
alone it would be of little importance where 
it came iu—at the top or any side—but to 
put windows into a poultry-house with no 
regard to securing the other advantages, is 
simply inexcusable. I have seen many 
houses with the windows so high that the 
sunshine on a winter’s day reflected on the 
rear side of the house, over the heads of the 
fowls, thereby wasting the warmth for the 
want of which the. poor birds sat shiver¬ 
ing. Of all places the roof is the poorest 
for glass. Although some of the best con¬ 
structed houses being low, must have glass 
sky-lights, and if these are kept as low 
down as possible—that is the lower edge 
being kept down to the frame of the build¬ 
ing—they will do very well, but if they are 
put in the middle ot the roof (as is very 
often the case) the sun’s rays being very 
slanting do not shine on the floor or low 
perches in winter, when heat is most wanted 
VIEW FROM A VERMONT PASTURE. Fig. 4. See Page 1. 
poultry buildings. The amount needed is 
just enough to keep the building comfort¬ 
able when the sun shines during cold 
weather in the winter. If there is more 
than that, constant care as to the ventila¬ 
tion is needed during the day and more or 
less : rtificial heat at night in order to kef p 
the fowls healthy. 
South Easton, Mass. 
FROM C. S. COOPER. 
From my experience in placing sash and 
glass therein, there is too much heat for 
the hot summer months if the glass is 
placed in the south side of the house, un¬ 
less it be coated with whitewash in hot 
weather. My poultry houses are all built 
after the old plan. The glass faces south 
during June, July, August and September 
. and in the summer when the rays at noon 
are nearly perpendicular, the heat pours 
down into the middle of the house; by 
building the house low, too, the heat of the 
day is better retained during the night. 
Iu houses that are built north and south 
the sky-lights may be omitted in the south¬ 
ern compartments if there are sashes in 
the ends. Now, for the sides: It is most 
desirable or I may say essential to have 
glass on the east side and the lower 
the better. I never heard of an objec¬ 
tion to an east window; but as we turn 
to the south side there are differences of 
opinion : some say that glass there lets in 
too much heat, and they advocate the use 
of sashes only in the west and east side or 
end. 1 do not believe in a dark southern 
side, as the winter’s sun rises so far south 
of east that its rays through an easterly 
window would last but a short time and 
for a long time during the day with no 
south window there would be little sun to 
cheer the house, for it would be late in the 
afternoon when.the sun would shine fairly 
in by a western window. The south window 
does let in a great deal of heat in summer, 
but not as much as some imagine, for the rea¬ 
son that the sun is so high when near noon 
that the rays do not strike far iu, if the front 
face is perpendicular—as it ought to be. For 
this reason I am no advocate for south-side 
sloping sashes in poultry houses. A south- 
side window 7 gives] the,, lougest period of 
sunshine during a whole day and it can be 
shaded in summer. 
Now we come to a third consideration—a 
west window. I have a number of houses of 
various designs—two with west windows; 
but these west windows let in more cold or 
rather let out more warmth than windows 
on the other sides. A very cold northwest 
wind penetrates these w 7 est windows badly 
and I never have them in houses in which 
I could as well dispense with them. The 
warmest houses in winter are those with 
glass on the east and south sides only, with 
no opening on the west and north. 
Ridgewood, N. J. 
FROM C. A. BELL. 
Some few, years ago I built two hen¬ 
houses 100 by 20 and 50 by 20 feet. I made 
the w r hole south side of glass and also a 
part of the east and west ends ; but I found 
there was too great a difference in the 
temperature of the place by day and night 
and so I have taken away more than half 
the glass. I w r ould have a small window 
on the east, a larger one on the 'w r est end 
and as large a one on the south. My 
buildings are divided into rooms 10 by 17 
feet each, a passageway,three feet wide run¬ 
ning clear through. I have two windows 
in each room, each window being 2K by 
seven feet. There are also one window on 
the east and two on the west end. My 
roosts are all ou a level about three feet 
high. 
Feeding Hills, Mass. 
FROM ORSON WINANS; 
1 cannot conceive of any utility in end 
light alone, as, during the winter season, 
when the sun is low dow r n in the southern 
sky, rising in the southeast and setting in 
the southwest, the birds in a house lighted 
in this way would get only a brief interval 
of sunshine at morn and late afternoon. 
With a building whose length, east and 
west, greatly exceeded its width, and 
divided into compartments, the center pens 
would receive no sunshine whatever, and 
the birds w r ould freeze by day as well as by 
night. If the building were set endwise to 
the south and north, the south end would 
receive all the heat. This plan w 7 ould not 
work w 7 ellif the northern portion contained 
pens also, unless the southern end were ele¬ 
vated to an angle of 45 degrees. This 
would let the slanting rays penetrate the 
entire length of the building. The poultry 
trade, like all other branches of business, is 
beset with “ cranks ” w 7 ho hatch up theories 
that are only a delusion and a snare. There 
is no better plan than to have the house 
face the south. The exposure on bright 
days in the winter seasou will give sun¬ 
shine in all the pens during the entire day 
—just what the birds need. In the intense 
heat of summer the sun is so near the 
zenith that its rays do not enter the pens 
to any extent, as it is nearly overhead. As 
to the fowls “ roasting by day,” if a dust- 
box is within the pen the birds will raise a 
fog which will so cover the glass that the 
sun’s rays will be modified to a great ex¬ 
tent. I find it necessary frequently to 
clean the windows in my building in order 
to allow more light and warmth to enter. 
To sum up : for many reasons I say by all 
means have the glass iu the south side if 
the building face that way. If it face to 
the southeast, have east windows also. 
West windows only let in unnecessary heat 
in summer and unwelcome cold iu winter. 
Oak Hill, N. Y. 
(Continued on Page 9.) 
A SUMMER OUTING IN THE NORTH 
CAROLINA. MOUNTAINS. 
V. 
MARY WAGE R-FISHER. 
I ram Franklin to Highlands; a rough 
ride; wild Jloivers; trees; rattlesnakes; 
cabins; a hamlet in a cleared plateau. 
As I found myself next morning very 
little the worse for the previous day’s fa¬ 
tigue, I resolved to push ou to Highlands, 
aud w r ent after breakfast with the laddie, 
