29 
1913. 
SUNSHINE IN WINTER POULTRY-HOUSE. 
A Stimulant for Egg Production. 
HEALTHY FLOCK.—On one bright, crisp 
morning last Winter I walked about the poul¬ 
try plant belonging to a young, wideawake 
friend of mine while lie was feeding the regular 
morning grain ration. As he scattered the mixture 
of wheat and line, plump oats in the deep straw 
which everywhere covered the floor to a depth of 
about six inches, I was impressed with the abun¬ 
dant life and activity of bis White Leghorn layers, 
as they scratched busily in the litter, hunting for 
their morning meal. Every bird was full of energy, 
their combs were bright red, their plumage was 
smooth and glistening as the sunlight struck it. and 
the whole house was filled with the contented songs 
of these workers. The thought came to me that 
such conditions as this were what made the keep¬ 
ing of poultry a pleasure and a success. I turned 
to my friend, when he had finished his work in that 
house, and asked him how these particular hens 
bad been paying him through the Winter days for 
the labor and effort which he had spent so regularly 
in their care. Ilis answer: “A full egg basket every 
night, all because of this beautiful sunshine,” ex¬ 
plained the whole thing, and impressed upon my 
mind the great importance of sunshine, especially 
the Winter poultry-house. 
EFFECTS OF SUNLIGHT.—Nature has provid¬ 
ed, in sunshine, one of the most influential factors 
in Winter egg production. At this time of the yea' 1 , 
when the air is cold, yet bracing and invigorating, 
its rays are welcome. Why are they? And why 
do they form an almost 
limiting agency in the 
production of Winter 
eggs? There are sev¬ 
eral reasons, and they 
all have to do more or 
less directly with the 
effect of sunlight upon 
the health of the birds. 
If a bird is in good 
health, its whole body 
is performing its regu¬ 
lar and normal func¬ 
tions. and among these 
normal functions in the 
birds of good breeding 
to-day is tbe production 
of eggs. A poultryman 
can afford to provide 
those environmental 
conditions which build 
up the health of his 
flock, and, surely, lie 
can afford to use the 
sunshine, so freely pro¬ 
vided for all mankind 
and beasts and birds, 
if he but realizes the 
why-for of its value. 
AN ENEMY OF DIS¬ 
EASE. — Perhaps its 
greatest usefulness lies in the fact that sunlight is 
the best natural enemy of disease. There are no 
disease producing germs that are able to withstand 
tbe direct rays of tbe sun for any length of time. 
The poultry-house which is flooded with sunshine, 
then, will be no home for roup germs, cholera germs, 
tuberculosis germs, or other bacteria which destroy 
the health and vitality of the laying flock. As much 
of the floor space as possible should be covered with 
sunshine during the greater part of the day. The 
litter is continually being turned up by the hens in 
hunting for the concealed grain and. if this litter is 
hit by the rays of the sun. germ life that may have 
accumulated in it will lie destroyed. Birds will often 
lie found literally bathing themselves in the sun¬ 
shine. just as I saw them doing in the poultry house 
which I visited last Winter. They like to make a 
small depression in the litter and then lie flat on 
their sides in the strongest sunlight they can find, 
and open their wings and loosen their feathers in 
order to feel the warm rays penetrating to the base 
of tbe feathers, and there striking the body. Birds 
that are allowed such privileges as this will rarely 
lie infested with vermin. It is a method provided 
by nature, whereby the bird may keep her body 
clean and healthy. Of course she cannot do this in 
a house that is dark, and into which little sunshine 
enters during the Winter days. 
DRIVING OUT DAMPNESS—Another great use¬ 
fulness of sunshine is found in the drying power 
which it has. No poultry house is a suitable place 
in which to carry laying hens through the Winter 
that is damp, and in which moisture stands in drops 
upon the rafters of the roof or upon the perches. 
Proper ventilation will correct a part of this bad 
THIS *‘UKAL NEW-YORK'ti^ 
condition, but sunshine is needed to finish the work. 
Sunshine, pouring into the house, drives the mois¬ 
ture from the air and. as the air dries, condensed 
moisture on the rafters and perches will disappear. 
Sunshine keeps the litter dry. Wet. tough litter is 
a breeding place for vermin and disease-producing 
organisms, as well as a disagreeable material in 
which the hens must scratch. The grain scattered 
in dry, clean straw, kept so by the sunshine, is clean, 
and will not cause troubles in the digestive system 
of the birds. 
A NATURAL TONIC.—Sunshine is the best med¬ 
icine that tbe poultry raiser can give to his Winter 
layers. It is a tonic which increases the activity 
of the fowls and makes them full of life and vigor. 
Contrasted to this are the fowls shut in through the 
Winter in dark, ill-ventilated houses, where the in¬ 
vigorating rays of the sun rarely enter. These birds 
are dull and mopy, not exercising but standing upon 
fbe perches or crowding into the small strip of sun¬ 
shine that is allotted to them. Lack of exercise 
weakens their bodies, and this means a greater sus¬ 
ceptibility to roup and other diseases so often found 
in houses of the closed type during the Winter sea¬ 
son. The effect of the continuous and generous sup¬ 
ply of sunshine is measured by the increased activ¬ 
ity of the birds, both in bodily actions and in tbe 
fuller egg pail, and by their merry and cheerful 
cackling throughout the day. 
BUILDING FOR SUNSHINE.—How can the poul¬ 
try-keeper best make use of this sunshine? That is 
the practical proposition that should be considered 
seriously. Tbe secret lies in the construction of the 
poultry-house. Every house intended for the Win¬ 
ter use of laying birds especially should be built with 
a front so arranged that a maximum amount of sun¬ 
light can enter tbe house. There is no type of house 
that will admit of so large and continuous an 
amount of sunshine as the slied-roof type. The rea¬ 
son is that with this type of roof it is possible to 
have a high front side. With equal slant houses, 
monitor and semi-monitor types, this high front is 
hardly possible, without making the building too 
high. The accompanying drawing. Fig. S, shows 
why the shed-roof house is most efficient from the 
sunshine standpoint, at least. The location of 
the windows makes a material difference in the 
amount of sunshine that will enter the house. 
The top of the window can well be placed 
about a foot from the front edge of the roof 
and can extend to within about 2*4 feet from the 
floor. Part of the front of the house should be 
formed of glass sashes, hinged to open as doors, and 
part should consist of muslin curtains. In the Win¬ 
ter the muslin curtains will be drawn up, except 
during heavy storms or on very cold nights, and the 
glass windows will remain closed throughout the 
season. This arrangement, well exemplified in the 
house of which a picture is shown, admits a maxi¬ 
mum amount of sunshine and fresh air. Sunshine 
and fresh air! This is a combination which forms 
an insurance policy for the poultryman. It is effec¬ 
tive, easy to obtain, and very cheap. A little rule 
that is a handy working guide in this construction 
work is to allow one square foot of glass to 20 square 
feet of floor space, and two square feet of muslin to 
one square foot of glass. This, followed, will make 
a Winter home of ideal type for the hens. 
As the Winter sun is from the south during the 
greater part of the time the house should be placed 
with its front toward the south. In this exposure 
the open front will not face the cold blasts of wind 
and snow that come from the north, but it will wel¬ 
come tbe admittance of sunshine. The electrical 
effect which its entrance into the poultry-house had 
upon the White Leghorns last Winter can be real¬ 
ized on every poultry plant or on any farm where a 
flock of poultry is kept. Every poultryman can 
truthfully say: “A full egg basket every night, and 
all because of this beautiful sunshine.” 
WILLARD C. THOMPSON. 
COLLEGE MEN AS FARM MANAGERS. 
It Depends on the Man. 
N page 14.°>() W. J. says that he will apply the 
same acid test to his farm manager that he 
does to a manager in a mercantile business. Is 
it customary to question the applicant in the latter 
business as to bis college life and past social stand¬ 
ing, or are not the questions of his present knowl¬ 
edge and ability, with references from former em¬ 
ployers, of more importance? As agricultural edu¬ 
cation consists in teaching principles which have 
stood the test of farm practice, failure to apply 
them with successful results must rest on the man: 
too often the college receives the blame which should 
fall on the individual. 
If it be considered a misfortune, I had the mis¬ 
fortune to graduate at the head of my class in a 
four-year agricultural course; my parents had sup¬ 
plied the funds for my ordinary wants. I joined 
a fraternity and occa¬ 
sionally ‘'mixed” in so¬ 
ciety. This did not pre¬ 
vent my working on 
farms in the Summer 
vacations and picking 
up experience at all 
spare time. As I was but 
21 years old when I 
graduated, and had bad 
no experience as a farm 
manager, I was not able 
to obtain a position in 
that capacity, which 
had been the aim of my 
college course. Because 
of my standing in col¬ 
lege I was able to ob¬ 
tain work in another 
agricultural line, and I 
remained there until I 
had saved enough to 
buy a small farm with 
a very large mortgage. 
As the farm is now on 
its financial feet. I be¬ 
lieve I may say that I 
managed it successfully. 
My ideas were ‘'big” 
when I left college, but 
stern necessity soon 
tempered 'them, and I have retained an ideal 
which can be gotten only in such an education, 
which has helped me throughout my farm ex¬ 
perience. If I had been given the opportunity to 
manage another farm than my own I am sure that I 
would have altered those same big ideas to meet the 
existing conditions, and bad I been given an equal 
opportunity, would have striven as hard for success. 
W. .T. then suggests tbe possibility of employing a 
“renter” or some man without a college education: 
if W. .T. has had farm experience and intends to keep 
in personal touch with the farm, such a man may be 
most suitable. On my farm I have a man about 40 
years old, who is scrupulously honest, a conscien¬ 
tious, hard worker, and in many respects an ideal 
farmer, yet he knows nothing of the' science of eco¬ 
nomical feeding and fertilizing, and if the farm were 
left to him it would soon return to the condition in 
which I found it. 
If AV. ,T. intends to farm as a business proposition 
it would be wiser to question his prospective man¬ 
ager to bring out his knowledge and ability rather 
than bis position in college. None of the men to 
whom I applied for a position as farm manager 
asked me questions which would bring out my 
knowledge of farm operations; but it has paid me 
well to choose a man only after I have given the ap¬ 
plicants every opportunity to tell all they know 
about the feeding and care of all kinds of live stock, 
and the use of cover crops and fertilizer. If the 
farm owner is without expei'ience let him ask a 
friend with such experience, or the county farm- 
demonstrator, to give his opinion of the applicant 
judging from the manner in which the answers are 
given. r. s. r. 
