Book IV. 



BUILDINGS FOR LIVE STOCK. 



41S 



whole acre, inclosed with a fence only six or seven feet high, formed of skbs set on end, 

 or any thinnings of fir or other trees split and put close together. They are fastened 

 by a rail near the top and another near the bottom, and are pointed sharp, which he 

 supposes prevents the poultry flying over, for they never attempt it, although so low. 

 Within this fence are places done up slightly (but well secured from wet) for each sort 

 of poultry ; also a pond or stream of water running through it. These poultry are fed 

 almost entirely witli potatoes boiled in steam, and thrive astonishingly well. The quan- 

 tity of dung that is made in this poultry place is also an object v^orth attention : and 

 when it is cleaned out, a thin paring of the surface is at the same time taken off, which 

 makes a valuable compost, for the purpose of manure. But for keeping poultry upon a 

 small scale, it is only necessary to have a small shed or slight building, formed in some 

 warm sheltered sunny situation, if near the kitchen or other place where a constant fire 

 is kept so much the better, vdth proper divisions, boxes, baskets, or other contrivances 

 for the different sorts of birds, and for their laying and incubation. 



2683. When a few poultry that take their chance at the barn-door, are kept by the farmer for the conve- 

 nience of eggs, and not to go to market when a fowl is wanted, no particular attention is requisite ; but 

 as, in some situations, they may pay well for more food and closer attention, other circumstances may be 

 noticed. " The poultry-house should," Young says, "contain an apartment for the general stock to roost 

 in, another for setting, a third for fattening, and a fourth, for food. If the scale is large, there should 

 be a fifth, for plucking and keeping feathers. If a woman is kept purposely to attend them, she should 

 have her cottage contiguous, that the smoke of her chimney may play into the roosting and setting rooms ; 

 poultry never thriving so well as in warmth and smoke ; an observation as old as Columella, and strongly 

 confinned by the quantity bred in the smoky cabins of Ireland. For setting both turkeys and hens, nests 

 should be made in lockers, that have lids with hinges, to.confine them, if necessary, or two or three will, he 

 says, in sitting, crowd into the same nest. All must have access to a graveUed yard, and to grass for 

 range, and the building should be near the farm yard, and have clear water near. Great attention should 

 be paid to cleanliness and whitewashing, not for appearance, but to destroy vermin." 



2684. The interior arrangement of a poultry house for a farm-yard, is generally very 

 simple, and consists of little more than a number of spars reaching across the building at 

 different heights, or the same height 

 with a gangway or ladder attached, for 

 the fowls to ascend : but where com- 

 fort and cleanliness is studied, a pre- 

 ferable mode is to form a sloping stage 

 of spars {Jig. 355 a, b), for the poultry 

 to sit on ; beneath this stage may be 

 two ranges of boxes for nests (c, c) ; the 

 roof (rf) should have a ceiling to keep 

 the whole warm in winter, and the 

 door (e) should be nearly as high as 

 the ceiling for ventilation, and should 

 have a small opening with a shutter at bottom, which, where there is no danger from dogs 

 or foxes, may be left open at all times to admit of the poultry going in and out at plea- 

 sure, and especially for their early egress during summer. The spars on which the 

 clawed birds are to roost, should not be round and smooth, but roundish and roughish, 

 like the branch of a tree.' The floor must be dry, and kept clean for the web-footed 

 kinds. 



2685. The rahbitry is a building of rare occurrence in agriculture, and where it is re- 

 quired difl'ers little from the piggery, consisting of a yard for exercise and receiving 

 food, and a covered close apartment connected, for repose, sleep, and the mothers and 

 young. In the latter are generally boxes a foot or more high and wide, and divided 

 into compartments of two or more cubic feet for the rabbits to retire into, and bring 

 forth their young. Where young rabbits are fed for the market, the mother and off- 

 spring are generally confined to hutches, which are boxes a little larger than the com- 

 mon breeding boxes, and kept in a separate apartment. In treating of the rabbit 

 (Part III.) these and other contrivances for the culture of this animal, will be brought 

 into notice. 



2686. The pigeonry is a structure not 

 more frequent than the rabbitry, being 

 scarcely admissible in professional agricul- 

 ture, excepting in grazing districts, where 

 the birds have not so direct an opportunity 

 of injuring corn. Sometimes they are made 

 an ornamental appendage to a proprietor's 

 farmery, or to a sheep-house in a park 

 {fig. 356.), or other detached building; 

 and sometimes a wooden structure, raised 

 from the ground on one or more posts, is 

 formed on purpose for their abode. What- 

 __ ever may be the external form, the interior 



