8o Agricultural Instruction in tJie Public High Schools 



activities of the agricultural classes. One of the efforts in the 

 senior rhetoricals, which occupied the time of the opening 

 exercises was based upon an agricultural theme. Some of the 

 composition work was directly related to the readings and lec- 

 tures of the agricultural classes, so that their notes took the 

 form of a formal exercise in English. I inspected a large num- 

 ber of essays on the same topic, poultry houses, handed in a 

 day or so before my coming. The guide for the course was 

 Lockwood's " Lessons in English." Each essay was prefaced, 

 of course, with an outline. From this lot one essay was selected 

 because the outline was really a synopsis of the essay, such as 

 would present in brief compass a good notion of the essay itself 

 and of the topic as presented in the agricultural class. The 

 author was the daughter of a hotel keeper, and without previous 

 experience with poultry. 



This synoptical outline is here given as written: 



POULTRY HOUSES 

 Houses and Inclosures 



1. The systems of housing are : 



(a) Colony plan, and 



(b) The continuous apartment house. 



2. The location and elevation of houses should be : 



(a) Facing the south, and 



(b) On elevation with natural drainage away from buildings. 



3. The proper time to build is : 



(a) During spring or early summer so as building will have time 

 to dry out. 



4. The size and dimensions of a house: 



(a) Depends on the number of fowls to be kept, i.e., about five 

 square feet to every chicken. 



(b) Should be square, and 



(c) As low as possible, as a low house is more easily warmed 

 than a high one. 



5. Foundation walls: 



(a) When permanent should be made of brick, stone or concrete or 



(b) When large stones or brick are not available use small stones. 



6. The different types of roofs are: 



(a) The single pitch, 



(b) The gable roof, or double pitch, and 



(c) The combination. 



