1034 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III* 



the work of destruction, committing in the warren, where it was introduced only for 

 its services, the most dreadful waste and havoc. It is possessed of high irritability, 

 and when particularly excited, is attended with an odor extremely offensive. 



Ckap. IX. 

 Of Animals of the Bird kind employed in Agnculturei 



6672. Though poultry form a very insignificant part of the live-stock of a farm, yet 

 they ought not to be altogether despised. In the largest farm, a few domestic fowls 

 pick up what might escape the pigs and be lost ; and on small farms, and among cotta- 

 gers, the breeding and rearing of early chickens and ducks, and in some situations the 

 rearing of turkies, and the keeping of geese, are found profitable. There are few who 

 do not relish a new egg or a pancake, not to say the flesh of fowls ; and there are some 

 of these comforts which happily can be had in as great perfection in the cottage as in the 

 palace. The various kinds of domestic fowls and birds which are used in agriculture, 

 may be classed as gallinaceous, or with cleft feet ; anserine, or web-footed; and birds of 

 fancy or luxury. Before proceeding to the first division, we shall offer some remarks 

 on poultry-hovels. 



Sect. I. Of Poidtry Houses and their Furniture and Utensils. 



6673. The situation of the jjoidtry house should be dry, and exposed either to the east 

 or south-east, so as to enjoy the sun's rays in winter as soon as he appears above the 

 horizon. Though in many cases all the commoner sorts of poultry are lodged in the 

 same apartment, yet to be able to bestow on each species its proper treatment, they 

 ought to be separated by divisions, and enter by separate doors. Apartments for aquatic 

 fowls may be made in part under those of the gallinaceous tribe, and the peacock often 

 prefers roosting on a tree, or on the roof of high buildings, when it forms an excellent 

 watch bird to the poultry yard or farmery. 



6674. Where a complete set of poultry houses are intended, then a situation should be 

 fixed on near or close to the farmery, and with ample space around for the fowls to 

 disperse over in the day time, and one or more ponds for the aquatic sorts. A space 

 thirty feet by fifty feet may be made choice of for the buildings and yard (Jig. 710.) ; 

 the building' may be ranged along the north side, and 

 the three other sides enclosed with a trellis or wire 

 fence, from six to eight feet in height, and sub- 

 divided with similar fences, according to the number 

 of apartments. The hen-house (a>, and turkey- 

 house (6), may have their roosts (c c), in part over 

 the low houses for ducks (rf) and geese (e), and 

 besides these there may be other apartments (f, g, h) 

 for hatching, or newly hatched broods, for fattening, 

 to serve as an hospital, or for retaining, boiling, or otherwise preparing food, killing 

 poultry, and other purposes. A flue may pass through the whole in moist or very 

 severe weather ; the walls should be built hollow in the manner already described, (6304.) 

 which will at the same time be a saving of material ; and the windows ought to have out- 

 side shutters both for excluding excessive heats and excessive colds. In every apart- 

 ment there ought to be a window opposite the door in order to create a thorough 

 draught when both are opened, and also a valve in the roof to admit the escape of the 

 hottest and lightest air. Every door ought to have a small opening at bottom for the 

 admission of the fowls when the door is shut. The elevation (fg. 711.) should be in 

 A simple style, and there may be a pigeonry over the central building. 



711 



6675. In ordinary cases, where poultry are kept on a farm merely to consume what 

 would otherwise be lost, one or two compartments of the low range of buildings on 

 the south side of the yard are usually devoted to them ; or any dry convenient place 

 according to the general plan of the farmery. 



