' r ^~ 
PRACTICAL EGG FARMS. 
The Long Poultry House on the Farm of G. F. Hosmer, Woburn, Mass. 
etc. This long house crowns a low ridge, and 
the ground sloping gently away from it on both 
sides there is perfect drainage; as there is also 
a gentle slope to the west the house drops down 
in successive steps so that the west end is some 
five or six feet lower than the east end. There 
being but two solid partitions with doors in this 
great length of house,there is liability to draughts, 
and in Avinter there would be several degrees 
difference in temperature between the lower 
and higher pens; such a house should be divided 
into sections of two (or at most three) pens to 
a\-oid draughts and unequal temperature. 
There are long yards for each pair of pens, ex¬ 
tending across the tiny valley into the trees 
and shrubbery on the adjoining ridge, and a 
sliding window in front of each pen gives light 
and air. The second story over the first three 
pens is finished off into sleeping rooms for the 
farm workmen. 
Mr. Hosmer began keeping poultry some 
years ago, while engaged in business in Boston. 
Finding the poultry department of his farm 
quite profitable he increased his buildings and 
laying stock, until a year or more ago he found 
it necessary to give up his Boston connection 
and gme his entire time to superintending the 
poultry work. 
He is Avintering this year about thirty-six 
hundred head of laying stock; the buildings in 
Avhich the large flocks are housed being located 
in three different fields, the original plant being 
close by the home buildings; two more recent 
buildings being perhaps a quarter of a mile 
distant, and about the same distance from each 
other. The buildings are all upon the closed 
pen plan, the pens being 18 x 12 feet each, and 
from forty to fifty birds are housed in each pen. 
In ansAver to our inquiry he told us the birds 
were laying less Avell this year than formerly; but 
he did not feel that he had any right to com¬ 
plain. He could make his hens pay him a 
profit of $1.00 per head and better, after paying 
the labor and feed bills, the interest and taxes. 
In going through the pens Ave noticed quite a 
good many birds that evidently Avere not laying, 
and such would undoubtedly pull down the 
average yearly profit. 
Mr. Hosmer hatches almost wholly by hens; 
has gotten out six thousand to seA r en thousand 
chickens a year by that method. Last year 
he hatched eighty-seven hundred, and this year 
intends to get out in the vicinity of ten thousand; 
some two-thirds of these will go to market. 
Mr. Hosmer has no yards to his pens excepting 
that an acre or two of land is fenced in for eight 
or ten pens, all of the birds being allowed access 
to the enclosure, sorting themselves out as they 
come back into the house. Much of the laying 
stock is a cross of Light Brahma male on Brown 
Leghorn females, the pullets being fine bodied 
birds and great layers. 
Noticing a nearly new and quite large manure 
shed, fitted with platforms on which to spreael 
the manure for drying, Ave inquired the condi¬ 
tion of the manure market, and were informed 
that it Avas declining. A feAV years ago he 
could sell all the manure he could make to 
tanners, at good prices; but recently tanners 
were substituting other material, and tanning 
by other processes, so that the demand for 
poultry manure for that purpose is growing 
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