CHAPTER II. 



CONVENIENT AND GOOD POULTRY HOUSES. 

 A VERY CHEAP HEN HOUSE. 



Experience has proved that twenty fowls, properly 

 housed, provided with suitable food, pure water, clean 

 nest boxes, plenty of dust, lime in some form, and gravel, 

 will return more clear profit than fifty, kept as they gen- 

 erally are upon farms. Suggest a good poultry house to 

 the average farmer, and frequently there arises in his 

 mind the image of an elaborate affair costing one hun- 

 dred, to one hundred and fifty dollars. Not being able 

 to spare that amount for such a purpose, he goes without, 

 and his poultry, exposed to the inclemencies of the 



Fig. 1. A CHEAP HEN HOUSE. 



weather, are a dead expense fully two-thirds of the year, 

 eating valuable food constantly and yielding nothing in 

 return. A poultry house large enough to properly shelter 

 twenty fowls can be erected at a very small cost. We give 

 an engraving of one, all the materials of which, witli the 

 exception of the sash, cost three dollars and eighty-five 

 cents. The sash was taken from a hot-bed that is used 

 for sprouting sweet potatoes late in the spring. When 

 the sash is required for the hot-bed the season is mild and 

 the opening is covered with boards. This structure is 

 nine feet wide, twelve feet long, and five feet high in the 

 (13) 



