The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
713 
Housing the Backyard Flock; Light and 
Ventilation 
Most small family flocks arc rather 
shabbily treated in the matter of housing, 
cither having to content themselves with 
quarters designed for other purposes and 
ill adapted to their needs, or with those 
whose builders showed little appreciation 
of what really contributes to the health 
and happiness of a hen. Fortunately, 
however, the principles governing good 
poultry-house construction are simple and 
easily applied, and permit the conversion 
of almost any henhouse of old style into 
one of modern type without great expense. 
Perhaps the chief fault to be found with 
the greater part of the poultry buildings 
found upon farms and in villages is that 
they are dark. Sunlight, the greatest as 
well as cheapest life-giving and disease- 
destroying force in nature, is given little 
opportunity to aid the poultry-keeper in 
maintaining that health and vigor in the 
flock so essential to production and repro¬ 
duction. These buildings are frequently 
only too well ventilated, if ventilation 
consists in admitting outside air, but their 
windows are few in number, small in size 
and not placed where they will admit the 
greatest number of the sun’s rays over the 
longest period of time. All the sunlight 
(bat possibly can be should be coaxed into 
die henhouse. To accomplish this, the 
windows should be sufficient in size and 
number to flood the interior with light, 
and they should be placed in the south 
and east walls of (he building. Where an 
open front is used, fewer windows will be 
required than where they alone are de¬ 
pended upon for both light and ventila¬ 
tion. Windows should extend from within 
about two feet of the floor to a height 
sufficient to permit the direct rays of the 
sun to penetrate nearly or quite to the 
rear of the pen. This will usually ram 
to the plate, or to a height of from G to 8 
feet from the floor. When used as ventila¬ 
tors, the windows should be arranged to 
drop back for a few inches at the top, 
thus permitting the air to enter over them 
and in an upward direction. To prevent 
air from entering along the sides also, the 
openings here are stopped by long V- 
shaped strips set against the sides of the 
sash, and forming the so-called hopper 
sides. If double sashes are used, only the 
upper one needs to drop back. 
Ample ventilation without injurious 
drafts upon the hens is the next requisite 
to healthful housing. The best way yet 
found to secure this is to leave a third or 
more of the south front of the pen open, 
covering this opening with wire poultry 
netting. Curtains may be provided to ex¬ 
clude direct storms but, at all other times, 
this open front should remain open. Un¬ 
less the building is a very long one. the 
wind will not blow into the pen through 
(his opening to create undesirable drafts; 
(bat is. it will not if the other three sides 
of the pen are made airtight so that the 
wind cannot blow through. You will see 
why this is true if you try to blow into a 
bottle. Such an opening placed several 
feet above the floor and extending well 
across the front of the pen will permit a 
free interchange of air, and insure as 
great dryness of the interior as it is pos¬ 
sible to obtain without artificial heat. It 
also admits sunlight, of course, and takes 
the place of one or more, windows. With¬ 
out such ventilation as is afforded by an 
open front or by windows kept constantly 
open, it is impossible to keep the interior 
of a poultry-house dry in cold weather. 
The interior air becomes saturated with 
moisture from the bodies of the fowls, and, 
if this moisture is not allowed to escape 
freely, it condenses upon the walls and 
litter. When this condensed., watery, va¬ 
por freezes upon walls and windows it is 
called frost. 
One of the hardest things to make an 
amateur poultryman understand, and par¬ 
ticularly if this poultryman happens to 
he a poultry woman with her ready sym¬ 
pathy for ail farm animals, is that closing 
a poultry-house tight in cold weather 
makes its occupants far more uncomfort¬ 
able than they would be with opened 
windows. The reason for this is that the 
air within a closed poultry-house will soon 
become more moist than that of the out- 
of-doors. and a damp, cold air is both 
more uncomfortable and unhealthful than 
a comparatively dry air much lower in 
temperature; in fact, it seems to matter 
little to feather-clad animals how cold the 
surrounding air is, if only it is dry. 
M. B. D. 
Liniberneck 
I have a hen with some trouble in neck 
or head. She seems to eat all right. 
M hen standing still or on roost head 
S .cems to hang limp on right shoulder. 
She also twists and turns her head just 
like a person afflicted with St. Vitus 
dance. Can you tell me the cause and a 
remedy ? p. F. M. 
New York. 
These cases of “limberneck” are caused 
by intestinal trouble from eating poison¬ 
ous or spoiled food, or from the presence 
ot worms in large numbers. The remedy 
l> . a dose of physic. this often curing 
within a few hours. Two or three tea- 
► n <>011 tills of castor oil, or one of Epsom 
Nans dissolved in a little water, may be 
iKimimstered and repeated if necessary. 
worms are suspected, one or two ten- 
s Pooutuls of spirits of turpentine may be 
given, either alone or combined with an 
equal amount of some bland oil. 
M. B. D. 
r 
natural mi 
The Universal Milking Machine Co. 
228 West Mound St., COLUMBUS, OHIO 
M OST any day now will come that first warm spell to thaw the 
ground and let you into the field to plow. 
And when it does come, then is heavy work. Up early, up 
late—hard at it all day in the field. Plowing comes first— all other 
work goes by the board. 
All except milking. Plowing or no plowing, you can’t slight 
that. But you can 
Cut Your Milking Time Two-thirds 
You can reduce a 3-hour milk¬ 
ing job to a 1-hour chore. You 
can save daylight--and get moretime in 
the field—if you own a Universal Natural 
Milker. 
The Universal not only does a 
better, cleaner job of milking with less 
help, at lower cost,—but it milks your 
cows the natural way-- two teats at a 
time instead of four. 
First a gentle milking suction on 
two of the teats. At the same time, the 
other two are resting and being 
massaged. Then the action is re¬ 
versed. Gentle suction—soothing mas¬ 
sage—that’s the action. As natural as a 
calf sucking and as pleasant to the cow. 
The Universal has won its way. It 
is making good on thousands of the 
largest dairy farms in the country; is 
cutting time and labor costs, and doing 
a better, cleaner job of milking. It will 
be the biggest labor-saving, high-profit 
investment you can make. 
See your dealer today or write for our catalog. 
STUDIED THEM ALL- 
Chose Universal 
After examining the different 
makes of milking machines used in 
this section, 1 decided to buy a 
Universal. 
Iam more than pleased With it, 
especially with the pulsator, which I 
think is the best on the market. 
Precious to buying the Universal 
I used a machine of another make 
but if I need another, I shall buy a 
Universal. 
t Signed) 
J. L. GARNSEY 
Clayton, N. Y. 
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EveiyFarm Needs 
a Concrete Mixer 
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Box 775 NEHAWKA.MEB. 
iiiiiiiiimiirmiiinmimiiiiiiiiimiiinn 
SHELDON MFC. COMPANY 
Box 775 Nehawka, Neb. 
Please send ne your new 48- 
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Nam*_ 
Address. 
PAINT 
$ 1.35 
PER 
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ORDER DIRECT FROM FACTORY 
We will send you as many gallons as you 
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Factory: 372 WAYNE ST.. JERSEY CITY, N. J. 
Upward 
SEPARATOR 
19 
I ^ On trial. New, well 
made, easy running, 
' easily cleaned, per¬ 
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Western orders from Western points. 
American Separator Co. 
Box 607S Bainbrluue, N.Y. 
[ When you write advertisers mention 
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guarantee editorial page. : 
