28 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. i. 



long by 8 or 9 feet wide will accommodate a 

 large number, and may still be constructed 

 at trifling cost, if made of rough timber and 

 warmly thatched. The walls need not be more 

 than 7 to 8 feet high from the ground, as 

 the slant of the roof will render it sufficiently 

 lofty in the centre for air and roosting. One 

 half of the length, in the centre, should be 

 appropriated as a roosting-house, and the re- 

 maining ends, divided off by slight boarding, 

 may be used — the one, with straw upon the 

 floor for tlie breeding of web-footed fowls or 

 turkeys, with nests placed over them, on 

 brackets, for the laying and hatching-hens of 

 the common poultry ; the other, both occa- 

 sionally for a fatting-house, or for the bring- 

 ing up of a brood of chickens. 



The perches, for roosting, should be placed 

 in a slanting direction at different heights, a 

 few feet from the floor, nearly up to the roof, 

 and sufficiently wide apart to prevent the 

 fowls which may roost on the lower perches 

 from being soiled by the droppings of those 

 above them ; but, as they should be fixed in 

 grooves, to allow of their being occasionally 

 taken down and cleaned, their number and 



