PRACTICAL EGG FARMS. 
of brick and the other third wood; the wooden 
wall and ceiling are covered with asbestos paper. 
The floor is of cement; twelve 360-egg Cyphers 
Incubators are operated. 
There are three hot-water-pipe brooder 
houses, two 125 ft. long each and the other 110 
ft. long,—these brooder houses are 16 ft. wide 
with a four foot walk at the back, hover pens 
are 3 x 12 ft. nearest the heater and increase to 
four feet in width for larger chicks, giving in all 
93 brooding pens. With colony and other 
houses for weaned chicks the plant has a capac¬ 
ity for about 10,000 head of young, but it is 
not wise to crowd to the limit, and 7,000 or 
S.000 head are as many as it is intended to hatch 
and raise there. Last year about 6,000 chicks 
were raised to market size or maturity, 
and it is interesting to note that a careful record 
of the hatches and the number of chicks raised 
has determined that it is safe to estimate to 
raise 40 chicks for every 100 eggs set. This is 
better than a good man} 7 poultrymen average, 
but Ave should keep in mind that the stock here 
is White Leghorn, eggs of which almost always 
hatch well, and that the hatching is in the 
normal breeding season when losses are feAv. 
There are eight laying houses with a total 
length of about 1,000 ft., and one laying house 
250 feet in length. The first houses built Avere 
12 x 50 feet, divided into tAA'o pens of 12 x 25 
ft., and in each pen Avas put a flock of 50 layers. 
The houses built later were divided into small 
pens for 25 birds each,—the plan folloAA’ed being 
Avhat is called a house Avithin a house. The 
outer Avails are sheathed, papered and covered 
Avith clap-boards. A feed room 10 x 12 ft. is 
constructed in one end of each house, and a Avalk 
3 ft. Avide continues the entire length of the 
building. A tight-board partition separates 
the pens from the Avalk, the pens are ceiled OA-er 
head and the front AA r all is ceiled up inside; 
thus there is an air space entirely surrounding 
the pens. A A'entilating trap opens into the 
loft from the center of each pen, and in the loft 
is stored scratching material, etc., for use as 
needed. Each pen has a door opening into the 
walk and there is also a door in each partition 
between the pens. These enclosed pens for 
housing the laying-breeding stock haA 7 e been 
found eminently satisfactory; they are suffi¬ 
ciently warm to protect White Leghorn combs 
from freezing. The plan is an excellent one and 
the health of the birds perfect. 
A slightly different plan is adopted for the 
250 ft. long house; in this there is a feed room 
in the middle as Avell as at each end. To provide 
for getting in scratching litter, etc., in the loft 
aboA 7 e the pens, doors like dormer windoAvs are 
built at intervals in the roof. 
It is gratifying to know that in breeding, the 
utility quality of the stock has been kept Avell 
to the front, the first object being good size, 
great laying quality, and great strength and 
A r igor; coupled with these points every atten¬ 
tion has been paid to standard requirements as 
to shape, carriage, etc. Taa'o lines of breeding 
stock is kept, one of exhibition matings in 
which 10 to 12 females are made into a breed¬ 
ing pen with a choice, selected male at the head; 
and these pens not only contain the cream of 
their OAvn flock, but choice birds are purchased 
AA'herever they can be found AA'hen it is thought 
that such will gme strength to the matings. 
In the ordinary matings about 25 hens or fully 
matured pullets are put in a pen and tA\ _ o strong, 
vigorous males provided. One male is given 
the run of the pen Avhile the other is resting in 
a roomy coop provided for the purpose, and the 
males are alternated, each gh 7 en a day of duty 
followed by a day of rest. 
It is very gratifying to visit such a great 
poultry establishment and see a business con¬ 
ducted in such a thorough, business-like way. 
It is such thoroughly up-to-date poultry plants 
as this that demonstrate what a solid, enduring 
foundation underlies the poultry business, and 
ranks it a truly great industry. 
PROFITABLE EGG FARMING. 
A Great Poultry Farm and a Remarkable Suc¬ 
cessful Poultry Business—Story of the Van 
Dreser Egg Farm, Cobleskill, 
New York. 
“The Twelve Hundred Hen House"—Interior 
Construction—Use of the Individual 
Brooder Houses—Caring for 
and Feeding the Chicks. 
The story of the growth of a highly successful 
poultry business, or indeed any great business, 
almost always reads like a romance, and has 
fascinating elements that most powerfully 
attract the reader. The latest aspirant for 
popular faA r or is no exception to this rule, even 
though poultry was not in this case, as in many 
others, the lever by which “the mortgage” 
Avas lifted. That dread incubus had been suc- 
73 
