202 PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 



center of the house or apartment a little higher than 

 towards the sills, grading the surface evenly so that it 

 will shed water towards the outside of the building. 



After the concrete is set it may have a surface coat- 

 ing of nearly clear cement mixed with water, to give it 

 a smooth hard finish. 



Another plan for outwitting the rats is to underlay a 

 board or dirt floor with wire netting of fine mesh or the 

 netting may be placed around the outside of the house, 

 extending from the sills vertically down eighteen inches 

 into the ground, then turning horizontally extend six 

 inches in the ground away from the house. 



7. INTERIORS. The arrangement of the inside of a hen 

 house, incubator cellar, brooder house or other poultry 

 building should be the simplest possible. 



The so-called fixtures, even the partitions, should be 

 removable. 



Inside doors or gates may be hung on double hinges 

 to swing both ways or special springs may be attached 

 to keep the doors from being left ajar when they should 

 be shut. 



Every precaution should be taken to avoid placing 

 doors, nests, feed-hoppers, etc., where they will cause 

 the attendant to take extra and 1 useless steps in caring 

 for the fowls. 



Communication between rooms or pens in a large 

 house should be direct, not roundabout. 



The entrance and exit doors of each house should be 

 so placed that the poultryman may get into and out of 

 the house with the greatest convenience and economy 

 of steps. 



CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS. 



The poultryman should make a special study of the 

 available building materials of his locality. Lumber, 

 even at prevailing high prices, is the material best 

 adapted, in most cases, for making poultry buildings, 

 especially if they are to be portable or removable. 



In frontier localities, where forests abound, satisfac- 

 tory hen-houses may even be made of logs. 



