Poultry that Pay a Profit. 61 



buckwheat and one wheat ; give one quart to 50 hens in chaff. 



3. Night, the same as No. 2, all they will eat. 



4. Drink, milk or pure water. 



For chickens, a cake made of sour milk, salt and soda made 

 thick with sifted feed and baked, also cracked wheat. 



Mr. Wyckoff thus describes the houses he has found most 

 satisfactory : "All my hen-houses are but one story high and 

 12x40 feet, with board floors and a partition in the center mak- 

 ing two apartments of 12x20 feet. The sides and ends are 

 two thicknesses of one-inch boards with tar-paper between. 

 The houses are six feet high to the eaves with a shingle roof, 

 and stand east and west, with two windows to each apartment, 

 each containing six 10x14 lights, which give sufficient light 

 when the houses are kept clean and whitewashed. Inside, 

 running along the entire length of. the north side of the build- 

 ing, is a platform 28 inches wide and 15 inches above the 

 floor; 15 inches above it, and running lengthwise of it, are 

 two perches set in notches in a frame arranged every 10 feet 

 for their support ; they can be easily lifted out and shoved 

 back against the side of the house an arrangement that per- 

 mits the platform to be easily cleaned. A strip of board nailed 

 to the front edge of the platform stiffens it and also prevents the 

 droppings from being thrown off upon the floor. On the floor 

 and immediately under the front of the platform are sections of 

 nest-boxes : a board hinged to the front of the platform comes 

 down to the top and even with the front of the nest-boxes ; 

 an opening in the nest-boxes every 10 feet allows the hens to 

 pass through under the platform and back of the nests, so that 

 they have easy access to them and are not disturbed at any 

 time by the attendant doing any necessary work about the 

 house. The eggs are reached by raising the hinged board. A 

 box containing dry road dust, a water-pan covered by a crate, 

 and a trough for feeding the morning meal comprise the furni- 

 ture. Everything upon the floor is movable and can be cleaned 

 out at any time. Plenty of dry road-earth and cut-straw is 

 used upon the floors, which are cleaned often." 



