PRACTICAL EGG FARMS. 
about three feet wide, with 
roosts above and a bank of 
nests below it at the back. 
A feed trough, water pan, 
grit and shells box, and (in 
one corner) a dusting pen 
comprise t h e furnishings. 
The water pan is set on a 
shelf some eighteen inches 
from the floor, which puts 
it up out of the way of the 
flying litter when the hens 
are scratching. The shelf 
is sufficiently broad so that the fowls may 
stand around the pan to drink, only about 
two inches of the margin of which is exposed 
to them. The water dish is a pan, literally; 
just a common milk pan, set on a broad shelf, 
with a board fixed just above to cover it all 
but the edge. 
All ventilation is by the windows, one of 
which in each pen is hinged at the side (just like 
a door), the windows are covered with wire 
netting to protect them against any wild plunges 
the fowls might make if frightened. All doors 
and gates between pens are in the centers of 
partitions, and are hung by strong spring-hinges, 
and they may swing either way; so that the at¬ 
tendant, going from pen to pen to feed or water, 
can push through from one pen to another with¬ 
out stopping to unlatch and latch doors and 
gates. 
There is straw or some scratching litter (which 
is frequently renewed) on the floor of these pens 
at all times. At the time of our visit there were 
but two or three inches of this, but in winter it is 
fully a foot in depth, and all the hard grain fed 
is thrown into the scratching litter and the birds 
have to scratch it out. Scratching is the fowl’s 
normal exercise, and is the best (most natural) 
exercise for them; fowls that have to scratch and 
search for their food will be in good health if 
other conditions are right. 
The droppings platform is about eighteen 
inches above the floor, and the roosts some ten 
inches above the platform. These are hinged 
to the back wall and can be hooked up to the 
roof to be out of the way when cleaning the 
platform; a two-inch wide strip is nailed to edge 
of platform to secure the droppings, and a ten- 
inch wide board is hinged below to darken the 
space occupied by the nest boxes. This effectu¬ 
ally prevents egg eating, as the nests are all dark 
and retired; there is a space at each end of the 
board which permits entrance to the nests. Of 
course it adds to the labor of collecting the eggs 
to have to swing up this board in each pen, but 
that is a small matter compared to the gain of 
preventing egg-eating, which is the bane of 
many a poultry house and effectually dissipates 
the profits. 
The droppings platform is cleaned off but once 
a week, and then well covered with land plaster 
(gypsum). That is, this has been the practice, 
but at the time of my visit, they were about to 
change to pulverized South Carolina rock, 
which is rich in phosporic acid, and, combined 
with the nitrogenous poultry manure, would 
make a very well balanced fertilizer for Mr. Van 
Dreser’s land, which is already well supplied 
with potash. When they clean off the droppings 
platforms a wagon is driven along the front of 
the house, stopping at the open window of each 
pen in turn, and the droppings are loaded di¬ 
rectly into the wagon. There being no pens (or 
yards) in front of the house, makes this possible. 
It was a surprise to us that there were no yards, 
and Mr. Van Dreser told us he put up fences and 
made yards when he built the house, but he did 
not like the looks of them and did not like to see 
the birds confined, so he took the fences down, 
and the (1,200) birds now have absolutely free 
range to the south, away off into the valley; we 
could see some of them so far away they looked 
like mere white specks in the distance. Another 
surprise to us was that the male birds running 
free did not fight. We were told they did not 
and those we saw about had no appearance of 
having “scrapped”; there was nothing that 
looked like torn combs or wattles, or their ever 
having been torn or marred. The explanation 
of this was that the birds were all brought up 
together as cockerels, and about three put in 
each pen together, and so they never fought. If 
a bird from another farm, a stranger, was in- 
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