416 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The successful poultryman cleans house early in the spring, he does not 

 allow empty cans to accumulate to gather rain water, and (if the cans have 

 held paint or white lead) poison the chicks. He takes care that there is no 

 unslaked lumps of lime about the henhouse; in fact, he keeps his eyes open 

 for the comfort of the hens. His houses may be straw shacks, but they are 

 comfortable and dry; his hens lay, and his chickens thrive, not from luck 

 but from common sense and watchfulness. Care and cleanliness are the 

 factors that make for success in the poultry world. 



MODERN CONVENIENCES IN THE HENHOUSE. 



Wallaces^ Farmer. 



Feed boxes are best hung to the ceiling or placed on a shelf to avoid soil- 

 ing by the fowls. A trough covered with a frame work of lath placed on a shelf 

 will avoid the waste of food which goes on when a hen can enter the trough 

 and scratch out most of the contents in an effort to get the choicest scrap. 



A low shelf with a row of spike nails on which to stick mangels, onions, 

 or other vegetables, is the best way to feed roots in all but freezing weather. 



Galvanized iron water vessels are the best; they should be placed on a 

 shelf between the partitions in a double house. One large sized vessel will 

 furnish water for two pens when so placed. 



Every poultry house should have a covered box for droppings. Poultry 

 manure is one of our most valuable and neglected fertilizers. It is specially 

 good for strawberry beds. 



On a shelf out of reach of the fowls keep a box of lice powder, a bottle 

 with spraying solution, box of vaseline or carbolized lard, and a ball of 

 string. The bottle should be fitted with a notched cork, to allow the fluid 

 to escape. A few whirls of the bottle over roosts and about walls and floor 

 will keep the house smelling sweet, and destroy germs. Crude carbolic 

 acid is one of the best germ destroyers. It should be used with a spray, and 

 one ounce added to each gallon of whitewash. 



