THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
November I, 1906 
Poultry. 
Profit in Raising Poultry. 
By E. L. Racwarpson. 
This article is part of an address de- 
livered by Mr. E. L. Richardson. Institute 
Lecturer, before the Central Alberta, 
( Canada) Institute meetings. 
In order to provide a suitable house for 
our poultry it is not necessary that we 
shouid go to a great deal of expense. The 
house that I am using is made of two ply 
of lumber with tar paper between, with 
a shingle roof and tar paper under, and 
I would ask no better house to winter 
poultry in. Care should be taken in 
choosing a suitable location for the house 
It should be selected where the sun will 
shine in all day. should face south, be in 
a convenient location and on dry, well 
drained land. Always build so that you 
can expand your poultry business if found 
desirable. The essentials in a poultry 
house are sunlight, fresh air and warmth, 
particularly the former two. 1 am in- 
clined to think less of the necessity of 
having a poultry house warm the longer I 
am in the business. At the poultry house 
at the Ontario Agricultural College we 
used to keep a coal stove going during the 
winter and [believe we got fewer winter 
eggs than we would have got without the 
stove. I have not had my poultry house 
door shut one day this winter in the day 
time and have not shut it more than ten 
nights. In the day time it is wide open 
and at night a burlap curtain hangs in the 
place of a door except on the very coldest 
nights. My birds do not know what a 
cold feels like and the poultry are as dry 
and the air as pure as the open. Ina 
house ten to twelve feet I like a window 
about three by five or six feet. Provide 
a regular door for use on the very coldest 
days and provide a burlap curtain door 
for general use. Make the house just 
high enough to prevent bumping your 
head and have all the fixtures so they can 
be removed to allow for a thorough clean- 
ing and disenfecting. Place the roosts on 
a- level so that there will not bo any 
crowding for reserved seats on the top 
round. Make the nests so that they can- 
not be seen, the hens having to go into 
them from an alley next the wall, the 
nests being at the outer edge <f the drop 
board. Provide a suitable drinking foun- 
tain, dust bath and trough to feed soft 
food. Be careful that your poultry 
quarters do not become too much crowded 
in the fall of the year as the young birns 
grow up, If this isthe case the birds 
will become heated on the roosts at night 
and catch cold when they start on their 
hunt for food in the early morning. ~ A 
scratching shed on the east or west side 
of the house about the same size as the 
house will be a great help. This does 
not require to be as warm as the poultry 
house and should only have a burlap cur- 
tain front which should only be down in 
the very stormy weather, Place a burlap 
curtain also from ihe wall ( not the roof ) 
over the roosts and let this curtain down 
at nights when it is cold, Suspend the 
curtain over a tight wire which should 
tun from wall to wall the same way asthe 
roosts about eightee: inches above them 
and far exough from the other wall so 
that the curtain will come out from the 
wall over wire and then drop on board, 
In the day time this curtain should be 
hung up to the roof. 
inches of dry clover hay or straw (not 
too coarse ) in the hen house and it wiil 
_teady to receive th: birds. 
KIND OF POULTRY TO KEEP. 
In the first place pure-bred birds should 
be kept. There is just as much different 
ina scrub steer which is “all legs and 
half bone” ard the pure-bred beef steer 
that can easily be put in good condition 
and wili put meat on in parts where it is 
the most valuable. The pure-bred further 
has an advantage in early maturity. In 
Canada there were eighteen million hens 
and chickens when the last census was 
taken. Jess than sheep stock of Australia, 
hnd only one million and a half of these 
were pure-breds. The sooner pure-breds 
constitute a majority of the poultry kept 
in Canada the greater will our profits be. 
The breeds of pouliry are divided into 
classes for convenient reference. Three 
classes under which the most commonly 
known breeds come are the American, in- 
cluding the Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes 
and Orpingtons; the Asiatic, including the 
Brahmas, Cochins and Langshangs, and 
the Mediterranean, including the Leg- 
horns, Andalusians and Spanish. The 
birds in the latter class are noted for the 
production of eggs, they are neryous and 
as a rule not good table fowls, They take 
the s:me place among breeds of poultry 
as the dairy type docs among cattle, which 
type is good for the production of milk 
but hard to sell to a butcher. The Asiatic 
class is made up of the very heavy birds, 
they are gocd layers and make excellent 
table birds, but they mature slowly and 
are not as gocd rustlers for food as the 
American class from which the farmer 
should select the breed he wishes to keep. 
As above stated this class includes the 
Recks, Wyaudottes and the Orpingtons 
(the Orpingtcns are an English breed, 
but can be classed here with the Ameri- 
cans), which are all general purpose 
breecs, These breeds mature quickly 
(although notas rapidly asthe Leghorns) 
lay well and make good table birds. 
Farmers’ Fowl House. 
In the construction best suited for 
Farmers’ Fowls, the chief consideration 
-will, necessarily be cheapness, consistent 
with practicability ; andit is on the farm 
and about the farm-house where the above 
requirements are most easily had. 
I should first say that the best results 
will be obtained by open-fronted build. 
Place about six 
ings, the ordinary lean-to-house—a back». 
two ends, and open front, and overhead 
covering—being all that is necessary. 
The most inexpensive protection can be 
erected in some corner of the farm yard, 
the ordinary pailing fence forming the 
back and end of house, leaving but one: 
end toerect, the front being open; the 
further this end is kept from the right- 
angle fence the house will, of course, be: 
the larger, and accommodation can be 
had for any number of fowls in relation 
to the distance®this end is kept from the- 
fence which forms the other end. The: 
roofing timber, such as joists, &., can all: 
be had on the farm, while the roof, cheap- 
ness being the object, bark can be had on. 
most farms, and while admitting that such. 
may not make a picturesque fowl-house 
covering, still; for practicability and com- 
fort, it suits excellently; nor is it any~ 
thing to be ashamed of, seeing that this 
product of the bush has formed the par- 
ental roof of many present-day happy and 
prosperous farmers. At the same time, 
although the bark roofing be watertight,. 
tnis and the paling walls will not consti- 
tute a healthy hen house, arising from the 
fact that such a structure would be most 
disastrous to inmates by the draughts 
coming through the openings between 
each pailing: indeed, rather than recom: 
mend this rain-proof structure, it could 
be safely asserted that the fowls would be 
more healthy roosting on the fenecs in 
the open air. The most dreaded of 
all poultry diseases is croup, of which a 
cold is the forerunner, the latter jn many 
instances being induced not by the low- 
_ness of the temperature, for while a single 
specimen, or a whole flock of poultry, may 
be healthy and profitably kept in open-air 
conditions below freezing point, this game 
flock ifin a draughty roos ing-house colds 
would be induced at any temperature 
from 50 to 60, or more degrees; and, on 
the other hand, the house may bo s0 
stuffy, close, and otherwise insanitary, 
that the almost tropical ‘temperature of 
80 or 90 degrees F. has been responsible 
for roupy troubles. On almost every 
homertead there are a number of old waste 
corn bags or sacks. These can be cub 
- open, and will make an excellent lining 
for the house, and should be tacked right 
round, and from the floor up to consider 
ably above the perches, which should not 
be more than at most two feet from the 
floor. It may be rightly said that this 
lining would be a harbour for vermin: 
however, that is easily provided against. 
The following recommendations, if carried 
out, will be effective in making ‘the place 
vermin proof :—To give the inside of the 
house, the palings, a good coating of coal 
tar, and tack the begs on before this dries 
and another coat on them after being 
fixed. he latter repeated each season z 
would contribute to a clean and healthy 
house; but, unfortunately, the tar jg no’ 
feadily obtainable at the bulk of the 
tarms, However, other more readily ob- 
rained applications are effective, of which — 
the following, for simplicity and cheap- 
