HOUSES FOR LAYERS. 49 



wherever necessary, a tile drain is put under the founda- 

 tion of the walls. 



The floor of an underground fowl house must always 

 be a little higher than the adjoining field, not on account 

 of drainage alone, but for ventilation. No room is fit 

 to be occupied by stock that cannot be ventilated at the 

 bottom. In this cellar the walled passage at A admits 

 air within eight inches of the floor, which is covered 

 with dry earth to that depth. The walls are topped 

 with plank sills, upon the outer edges of which the run- 

 ners of the itinerant building rest, calking being 

 resorted to as in the previous case. It will not answer 

 to house fowls in such a place unless there is plenty of 

 glass above, and the south roof, therefore, contains five 

 long windows, instead of two short ones, as in the other 

 cases, each door being furnished with one. There is a 

 shutter, B, to correspond with each window. Other- 

 wise the house is of the usual pattern, and the winter 

 sheds and feed room are attached to it, though omitted 

 in the figure so as to show the embankment plainer. 

 The house and mound have a bleak look in the illustra- 

 tion, but the sheds will make the whole sheltered and 

 cosy. In the cut, the embankment is represented too 

 steep. The slant should be such as to withstand heavy 

 rains. The usual boarded passage, not shown in the 

 cut, connects the feed room with the tunnel at A. 

 There are sunny days enough in winter to keep the 

 earth bed inside perfectly dry, and the air will be no 

 damper than in an unglazed apartment entirely above 

 ground. Straw mats of the greenhouse pattern are used 

 at night upon the north roofs of all the buildings in 

 winter. The amount of solar heat accumulated during 

 a clear winter's day in a tight building roofed with glass 

 is surprising, and this is to be retained as long as possi- 

 ble, always remembering, however, to give ventilation 

 its due. Summer and winter the admission of air must 

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