PROFITABLE EGG FARMING. 
cessfully disposed of by years of profitable 
thoroughbred-stock raising, and when the 
attention of the farmer was drawn to poultry 
he had already achieved a national reputation 
as a breeder and judge of Holstein cattle, and 
was in demand as a speaker at Farmers’ Insti¬ 
tutes in many states. The man is Henry Van 
Dreser and his farm is in Cobleskill, N. Y., 
where he was born and grew to manhood, his 
Dutch ancestors being well and favorably known 
throughout that region. It is a most beautiful 
country about there. All of that part of New 
York state lying north of the Catskills and 
west of the Hudson is an ideal country for a 
home. 
We recognized Mr. Van Dreser on the station 
platform before the train had come to a stop, 
and a hearty hand-grasp welcomed us. Driving 
through the thriving town and out upon the 
country road, we noted that everyone knew and 
exchanged salutations with him, and everyone 
who addressed him called him “ Henry.” It’s 
a good indication of a man’s character to be 
well known and on intimate terms with a whole 
townspeople! We drove through some two miles 
of rural loveliness, up two or three modest hills, 
then up quite a steep rise (badly washed by 
recent rains), and there was the farm spread out 
before us. 
“That is our home!” said Mr. Van Dreser, 
and his voice lingered lovingly upon the word, 
as we sat in the carriage and looked across the 
modest valley to the farm buildings and fields 
spread over the sloping hillside. The buildings 
were all in sight from that view point, and it 
was, indeed, fair to look upon that pleasant 
August morning. 
“ It isn’t possible that you raise hops too? ” 
we said, as we drove past a considerable hop 
field. 
“Yes, those are our hops,” Mr. Van D. re¬ 
plied, “ and that is our corn just above the hops, 
and the sunflowers just beyond. This part of 
our farm lies on the high road on two sides.” 
“Isn’t that a fine piece of corn, though!” he 
exclaimed, “ how well that is eared out.” 
Then the sunflowers came in for comment, 
and in a few minutes the orchard, across the 
road from the dwelling house, and fairly over¬ 
flowing with White Leghorn youngsters, came 
into view, and we stepped down at the door of 
the house, to be welcomed by Mr. Green, Mr. 
Van Dreser’s able second, to whose patient, 
watchful care for the past six years, much of the 
constant growth and success of the business 
is due. 
Mr. Van Dreser’s “Twelve Hundred Hen 
House.” 
The chickens in the orchard first attracted 
our attention, then the packing house and in¬ 
cubator cellar, and then we crossed the road to 
the long house, the “ twelve hundred hen house ” 
as they call it, which is in the center, indeed 
the chief object in the plant, and its most dis¬ 
tinctive feature. This long house, running east 
from the farm buildings, is situated just upon 
the edge of the hill slope, and looks off over the 
valley in which the bulk of the 200-acre farm 
lies; it is 367 feet long, nine and a half feet high 
in front, five and a half feet high at the back, and 
is fifteen feet wide. The single roof slopes 
north, an excellent thing, relieving the south 
front, where the fowls congregate, of all drip. 
The foundation of the house is stone laid up in 
mortar, and it is filled in to bottom of sills with 
stones and rubble, then floored with Portland 
cement; it took nine and a half tons of cement 
to floor this house. The frame and rafters are 
of four inch studding and both walls and roof 
are double boarded, boarded both outside and 
inside the studs and rafters. The walls are 
boarded up outside with “siding,” and inside 
with sheathing paper and inch boards, and all the 
spaces between studs are packed with swale hay 
and straw. The roof is covered with steel 
roofing, painted red, is ceiled on the under-side 
with boards and this four-inch space is likewise 
packed with swale hay and straw. These 
(practically) six-inch walls and roof make the 
house very cool in summer and exclude frost 
in winter. 
Description of Interior of Long House. 
The interior arrangements of the house are 
very simple. Midway of it is one section carried 
up two stories, the first floor of which is a tasty 
and convenient farm office and the second floor 
is finished off for a sleeping room for a poultry- 
man. 
The poultry house itself is divided into 
twenty-two compartments, fifteen feet square, 
each three compartments being separated from 
the next ones by a matched boards partition and 
wooden door, all the other partitions being of 
wire netting and gates. Each fifteen-foot com¬ 
partment has two windows of twelve lights, 
9x12 glass in the front; a droppings platform 
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