CHAPTER XIX. 



THE TILT BOX. 



A pile of straw, leaves, chaff, excelsior, hay, or almost 

 any sort of litter must be located under the cylinder. 

 If the litter would always remain loose and huffy so that 

 the grain would rattle down in interstices, then no fur- 

 ther machinery would be needed. But it will not 

 remain loose. The scratching of the birds will soon 

 reduce long straw to short bits, and their trampling 

 will turn the pile into a compact mass, on top of which 

 the grain will lie and be devo.ured at once, and therefore 

 no exercise to speak of will be secured. An agitator or 

 litter-stirring apparatus is therefore necessary, as well as 

 a grain dropper, so that the litter and grain may be 

 thoroughly mixed together. 



There are a half dozen different methods of construct- 

 ing simple machinery for mixing, but the simplest 

 movement consists in using chaff, short cut straw or 

 other stuff for litter that is short and heavy enough to 

 roll and tumble readily, and placing it in a box or bin 

 that is made to rock like a cradle. Let the floor be in a 

 level position at the start, then rock the box till the 

 floor stands at an almost perpendicular position, causing 

 the litter to tumble, then rock the box back again to a 

 level. The grain is dropped just before the litter begins 

 to slide or tumble. By a simple device, to be presently 

 described, the fowls are called out of the tilt box before 

 it is rocked, and are not admitted till it is level again. 



The operation of rocking or tilting will be understood 

 by referring to Figs. 72 and 73. Suppose the box is at 



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