14LJ 
THE RURA.L, NEW-YORKER 
February ft,' 
MORE ABOUT OPEN-FRONT HOUSES. 
I would like a little more light on those 
open-front poultry houses described by Mr. 
Cosgrove in a recent issue. 1. Is there any 
provision for preventing rain or snow from 
beating in onto the floor or is such pro¬ 
vision unnecessary? 2. If a house of this 
style were built 50 to 100 feet long would 
it be necessary to build tight partitions be¬ 
tween the pens to prevent a draught from 
end to end of the house? 3. Would a roof 
made of unmatched boards and shingles be 
tight enough to confine the warm air, or 
must we use some prepared roofing? 4. It 
will be necessary to place the door well to¬ 
ward the back in order to secure the proper 
height. Will it not be difficult to make 
the door tight qnough to confine the air? 
5. If the warm, moist air from the hens’ 
breath is confined as described, will it not 
cause dampness on walls and roof of a 
single wall house when the weather is cold? 
6. With 50 liens in a flock, how much floor 
space is necessary in a house of this style? 
Hardwick, Vt. s. s. c. 
Axs.—1. In the houses at Storrs Col¬ 
lege there is a muslin-covered frame to 
let down when it storms hard, but the 
house I changed to open front last Fall 
has no curtains or anything else to keep 
the storms out. The house is 20 feet 
long by 16 feet deep from front to rear. 
The open front is three feet high and 20 
feet long. The weather has been as low 
as nine below zero; driving snowstorms 
have not gone in deeper than three feet 
from the front and that only at one 
end. There are 70 pullets and seven 
cockerels in the house, and we get 33 
to 35 eggs a day from them; practically 
a 50 per cent yield. The zero weather 
has made no change in egg production. 
Adjoining this house is another house 
20 feet long by 10 feet wide where there 
are 25 nests; grit, shell and charcoal 
boxes, dust baths, etc. There is a large 
door opening into the roosting house, 
also a small hole for the hens to go 
through when the door is shut. The 
roof is matched boards covered with 
roofing. I think it warmer and drier 
than shingles, and cheaper. The average 
penetration of storms into the open 
front—either rain or snow—has not ex¬ 
ceeded 20 inches. 
2. I think tight partitions would be 
necessary as often as every 20 feet. But 
I have had no experience with the “con¬ 
tinuous house” made open front. 3. 
Roof of unmatched boards and shingles 
would not be tight enough to prevent 
drafts through the house. 
4. No; it is not difficult to make the 
door tight enough; if it shuts as tight 
as an ordinary dwelling house door, it 
will answer. 
5. I do not find any dampness on the 
walls or roof of my house. Probably 
the reason is that there is a constant 
slozv change of the air. 
6. " I don’t see why any more floor 
space would be needed than ' for any 
other style of house. A house 14x16 
feet would give each of 50 fowls a little 
over four square feet, which is sufficient. 
My neighbor has a house 21x18 feet in 
which lie keeps 134 White Leghorns that 
are laying well this cold Winter. Three 
rows of roosts across the rear end. 21 
feet, afford room to roost, by my Wyan- 
dottes would require more roost room. 
Four Wyandottes will occupy about as 
much roost space as six Leghorns. 
GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
UTILITY POULTRY STOCK. 
I intend to start in poultry and am 
anxious to secure the advantages possessed 
by a strain developed for egg production. 
It seems to me the poultry fanciers place 
their emphasis on the wrong qualities. They 
set up artificial standards for an ideal hen. 
and disregarding utility, breed to attain 
their false standards. It is claimed even 
by some of the “insurgent’’ fanciers that 
they have well nigh ruined some of our 
most valuable breeds in their attempts to 
attain false ideals. They disregard the 
fact that the hen is primarily an egg ma¬ 
chine. They ignore, too, the market branch 
of the business. I am anxious to start 
with stock that has been built up by intel¬ 
ligent breeders for high egg production, and 
with that advantage at the beginning con¬ 
tinue to breed for eggs. I understand there 
are strains of other breeds than Leghorns 
that equal or nearly equal them in this 
feature. If so I would like to know the 
breeds and the strains, for it must be con¬ 
fessed that Leghorns have serious disad¬ 
vantages. V. D. WELLS. 
Montana. 
You are undoubtedly correct in your posi¬ 
tion regarding the breeding of our utility 
fowls to false standards. Breeders of fancy 
fowl have not only set up unnatural stand¬ 
ards, but have transgressed every law of 
safe breeding to attain their ends. Not 
content with one or two serviceable varie¬ 
ties for each breed, they must have them 
represented in every shade and combination 
of color and lacing known or guessed at. 
To get the plumage they have sacrificed 
stamina and the saving qualities of the 
breed. Not content with these freaks of 
their fancy, they must apply their ideas 
to the already established varieties on 
which the breed has built its reputation. 
Take the Barred Plymouth Rocks for exam¬ 
ple. They have one standard for pullets, 
another for cockerels and to meet them, 
pens are especially mated up to produce 
the correct shade in the plumage of the 
pullets, the cockerels being discarded as 
unfit for show purposes. Another set of 
pens produces the cockerels of the proper 
shade and discards the pullets. With white 
fowls one might suppose there might be 
some escape, but no, they must be pure 
white, regardless of the healthiest way to 
bring them up. egg production, or vitality. 
If these standards were followed by oniy 
a few faddists. I would not consider them 
of any moment, but they have been foisted 
on the poultry public at large until the 
most successful of our poultr.vmen—that is 
the market men—think their breeds unfit 
for show purposes simply because they have 
bred them for business and not for a cer¬ 
tain shade of coloring, a comb with a cer¬ 
tain exact shape, or a tail at a certain 
angle. What I contend is that we should 
breed for a shape that fits our needs, for a 
vigor that makes the individual able to re¬ 
produce himself and his valuable charac¬ 
teristics. and for a color or shades of color 
that result from sane breeding and healthy 
treatment. A wide field is open in our 
big shows for egg and dressed fowl depart¬ 
ments. Their products are the final test of 
the value of a fowl. “Handsome is as 
handsome does” surely has its application 
here. Here and there 1 believe men have 
seen the writing on the wall, and are 
waking up to the importance of the utility 
features in the show room. Locally, we 
have made a small beginning in this direc¬ 
tion by holding annually a neighborhood 
show for farm poultry. The hoodoo of 
fancy is our chief obstacle even here. Peo¬ 
ple do not seem to grasp readily the fact 
that eggs are eggs and dressed fowl are 
dressed fowl while feathers are quite an¬ 
other matter. However, by putting heavy 
premiums on these products and emphasiz¬ 
ing their importance in the utility poultry 
show, we hope to make some progress. 
I believe, however, that you are wrong 
when you state that “primarily the hen is 
an egg machine.” That is where any num¬ 
ber of utility men have run themselves into 
the ground and exactly what has ruined 
many a fine strain of layers. The hen is 
not an egg machine, primarily. She is a 
creature whose reproductive powers have 
been abnormally developed and in so doing 
poultr.vmen have not always been careful 
about giving her every natural advantage. 
They have gone to as great extremes as the 
feather men, and for the sake of eggs and 
more eggs have sacrificed vitality and 
strength in reproduction. The strains that 
have stood the test of time are those which 
have not been subjected to unreasonable 
forcing and have been kept up by feeding 
and breeding in a rational way. I would 
not jump at the adv. of a 200-egg strain 
unless I knew how the advertiser reared 
and cared for his breeders. Strains, like 
breeds, are too easily changed by handling, 
and the keepers of market flocks as a rule 
do not attempt to sell eggs or stock for 
hatching as a part of their business. In 
buying I would not depend on any reputed 
strain, but rather hunt up some successful 
local producer and find out what ho is most 
successful with. When living in Massachu¬ 
setts I had some of Duston’s strain of 
White Wyandottes that were about the best 
layers I have ever had. When I came 
South to live I found they did not answer 
at all, and have worked into White Leg¬ 
horns instead, building up my own strain. 
Under other conditions I have had equally 
good success with a local strain of Rhode 
Island Reds. I believe the best anyone can 
do is to get hold of a strain of birds adapted 
to local market and climatic conditions and 
develop them along lines to suit himself. I 
would get healthy stock regardless of egg 
production or fancy qualities. What you 
want is something to build on : not some¬ 
thing nearly burnt out with excessive at¬ 
tention to one particular feature regardless 
of natural conditions. There is no “heav¬ 
iest laying strain” of either Leghorns or 
any other breed to fit every condition of 
climate and care. Birds that do first rate 
in New York or Ohio might fail entirely 
of satisfactory results in Montana. Better. 
I think, get some birds reasonably near 
home and develop them to suit yourself. 
Don’t look at your hen as an animated 
patchwork quilt or a patent “egg machine.” 
K. B. 
Chicks and Earthworms. 
What remedy can be applied in raising 
chickens on a farm where soil is very rich 
and contains many worms? I am told that 
this condition of soil causes the young 
chckens to have gapes. h. w. d. 
Lime or salt would destroy some of the 
earthworms, but why try to get rid of them? 
They are a sure indication of rich soil, and 
do much good in opening the soil and work¬ 
ing it over. The large fowls are very fond 
of them—they make a good substitute for 
meat. You often see men digging up the 
chicken yard—the hens following him and 
struggling for each worm thrown out. But 
what about the gapes? The little worm 
which causes this trouble may pass part of 
its life on the earthworms. Yet we have 
seen cases where many worms were fed di¬ 
rect to the chicks without serious trouble. 
On some farms apparently few of the gape 
worms are present and in such cases of 
course there would be little trouble with 
earthworms. At any rate, keeping the little 
chicks on a board floor will protect them. 
If you have reason to believe that the 
soil is infested with gape worms we should 
keep the little chicks away from the soil 
and let the worms alone. 
A Missouri Mortgage Lifter. 
The Missouri hen is known as a mortgage lifter. Here is one case among 
many. Mr. M. L. Phelps bought 50 acres near Windsor, Mo., four years ago. 
Encumbrance $1500; fences down, house and place generally run down. 
He started with 400 to 500 chickens. He was Boon getting 
$100 a month from eggs. 
Mr. Phelps has refenced the farm, im¬ 
proved the house and barn and has paid 
off the $1500 out of the egg money. All 
the while he has enjoyed a good living. 
Any man living along the Rock Island 
Lines between St. Louis and Kansas City, 
who will produce and ship fresh eggs to 
these big nearby markets can get fancy 
prices. 
Poultry and eggs can be produced in this 
section of the Missouri Ozarks at the 
lowest possible cost -the climate, soil, 
and pure water mak« for ideal conditions 
in poultry raising. 
If you are not getting good results you 
may not be located right. This matter of 
location is worthy of serious thought. 
There are some particularly good locations 
for profitable poultry raising, along the 
Rock Island Lines. Professor H. M. 
Cottrell, an expert of national reputation, 
formerly Professor at the Kansas and 
Colorado Agricultural Colleges, and now 
in charge of the Rock Island Lines, 
Department of Agriculture, has made a 
careful study of every locality along the 
Rock Island Lines. He knows the best 
places for poultry raising, and can tell you 
the very place where you are most likely 
to succeed. 
Drop me a line and tell me about yourself 
and what you want to do. You will be 
given careful, personal, e x p e r t advice 
without cost or obligation. 
Book on scientific poultry raising, free! 
—an expert’s instruction book on expert poultry methods, written by Prof. Cottrell. 
His experiences, his knowledge, his advice, as given you in this book, will save you 
many a false step—make you many a dollar. You would willingly pay for this book, if 
you knew its contents. Write for your free copy today. 
The statements herein made have been fully investigated, and 
can be absolutely relied upon. 
L. M. Allen, Passenger Traffic Manager, Rock Island Lines, 
460 LaSalle Station, Chicago 
John Sebastian, Third Vice-President 
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