860 



G1.EA^1^GS LN UEK CULTUKE. 



Nov. 



expense of warm and comfortable houses. 

 Quite an intelligent lady, who is a teacher 

 in one of our schools, said she would be 

 tempted to go into the poultry-business con- 

 siderably, if it were not for the expense of 

 suitable buildings for them during the win- 

 ter ; and I have been thinking of the matter 

 for some time. The result of it is, I verily 

 believe, another of those gifts I have been 

 telling you about, and heie it is : 



A WINTER POULTRY-HOUSE FOR 50 CTS. IN 

 MONEY, AND HALF A DAY IN TmE. 



I have now actually in use a poultry-house 

 containing a roosting-apartment, or bed- 

 room, as the children call it ; an eating, or 

 dining room, as they have it, and a laying- 

 apartment, or egg-depository. Yes, and we 

 have a room specially for nice drinking- 

 water. This poultry-house is, at the same 

 time, so made that little if any frost gets 

 into any of these different apartments, and 

 yet the expense of the materials is less than 

 half a dollar; and the time required to 

 make it should not exceed l.alf a day. The 

 above sounds like a patent-right advertise- 

 ment, does it not V Well, it is not any thing 

 that I have to sell. It is to give away, and 

 I am feeling happy this morning to think 

 that God has given it to me to give to you. 

 Would some of my juvenile friends like to 

 make one? All right, boys, ('ome with 

 me and I will tell you all about it. 



Go to your nearest grocery or dry-goods 

 store, and purchase the largest hogshead 

 you can find. Such a one as merchants oft- 

 en get crockery in is just the thing, only it 

 wants to be large— the larger the better. It 

 does not matter whether it has any heads or 

 not ; in fact, it is better without them, for 

 you would have to throw them away if you 

 got them . You ought not to pay over 25 

 cts. for such a hogshead, and may be you 

 can get one for less than that. Now, while 

 you are about it, ask him for two empty 

 nail-kegs. These, also, are to be without 

 top or liottom. You want also a barrel with- 

 out top or bottom. Any kind of one will do 

 that will not fall to pieces. You next want a 

 box big enough to set over a common wood- 

 en pail. This box, also, is to have both top 

 and bottom taken out. You now want to 

 get these materials moved to some place 

 where the soil is soft and mellow. If you 

 raise celery, make the hen-house on the 

 celery ground, after the celery has been dug 

 for the winter. The location should slope a 

 little toward the south. If it does not do 

 so naturally, you can make it do so. If you 



can have it protected from the north and 

 west winds by buildings, trees, orchards, or 

 something of that kind, all the better. Com- 

 mence with your hogshead first. With a 

 coarse saw, with a good deal of set in it, you 

 are to saw the hogshead in halves, in the 

 manner shown in the cut below. 



HOW TO CUT THE HOGSHEAD IN TWO. 



I think I would saw off the staves a little 

 higher up above the bung-hole than the en- 

 graver has marked it ; then the next two a 

 little lower. But it depends somewhat on 

 the size of your hogshead. If you can get a 

 foot below the bung-hole and a foot above 

 it each time, it will make your apartments a 

 little higher. Saw straight across two staves 

 (three if they are narrow) at once ; and by 

 the time you cut a little into the staves on 

 the sides which are not to be cut off, you 

 can probably get the point of your saw 

 through between the two that are to be cut. 

 In this way you can get through them pretty 

 rapidly. When your hogshead is in two 

 pieces, dig down to where the ground is tol- 

 erably hard, and level it off st) it will slope 

 a little to the south. Throw the soft loose 

 dirt out of the way, in the form of a circle, 

 until you have room to plant your utensils, 

 as in the cut below. 



OUR WINTER POULTRY'-HOUSE BEFORE IT 

 IS COVERED WITH DRY' EARTH. 



In the picture the engraver did not get the 

 two halves of the hogshead placed together 

 just as I meant to have it. The two halves 

 should be so placed that two doors face each 

 other, making an opening from one,to the 

 other. The right-hand tub is the roosting- 



