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Show I POULTRY THE OPEN AIR POULTRY HOUSE. The open air house has' become a fixture in modem poultry husbandry. We formerly thought we must keep our hens' warm in order to get the bcst results, which required houses to be artificially heated. The modern poultry house is shiglc boarded and tight with practically an open front containing both cloth and glass, and instead of costing from four to seven dollars per hen, need not cost, even with present high prices of lumber, to exceed two dollars per hen, and in many instances even a less amount. There m&y be some question of doubt in the minds of certain poul-trymen poul-trymen as to the advisability of using cloth over some of the window openings open-ings in plaec of glass particularly from the fear that the hens will suffer from the cold. It is a surprising fact which we ha vie demonstrated in our experiments covering three years where we have been comparing houses otherwise similar, one containing glass, another cloth, and still others with both cloth and glass, and one without cither, that we found on an average during the winter, the temperature tem-perature of the house with cloth windows win-dows was only about, one and one-half degrees colder than the house with the windows. The cloth window house was dryer and contained purer air. The hens have been, as a rule, healthli'cr and have given us our best general results as compared to the house with the glass window. In other words, we have found that although al-though comfort is important and that, other things being equal, the very cold house would be less desirable, nevertheless, hens will do far better iir cold, pure air tlian they will in wairm, impure air; that fresh air is of more importance than warmth if wc cannot have both. Inasmuch as glass lets' in about three times as much sunlight sun-light as cldth, it is desirable to have both cloth and glass in the front of the house. Without pure air in a poultry house, a poultryman cannot stay long in the business unless he has a large bank account to foot the bills. Low vitality in the breeding stock which will result in infertile eggs and weak chickens will soon put the poultryman poul-tryman out of business. -Prof. James E. Rice, Poultry Husbandry, Cornell Agricultural College. |