GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 



to leave the natural loose earth, which the fowls delight to 

 scratch in. 



Cleanliness must be attended to. In the house it is easily 

 secured by laying a board underneath the perch, which can be 

 scraped clean every morning in a moment, and the air the 

 fowls breathe thus kept perfectly pure. Or the droppings may 



Fig. 1. 



o Broad shelf, eighteen inches high. 



b Perch, four inches above. 



c Nests, open at top and in front. 



be taken up daily with a small hoe and a housemaid's common 

 dustpan, after which a handful of ashes or sand lightly 

 sprinkled will make the house all it should be. 



There is another most excellent plan for preserving clean- 

 liness in the roosting-house, shown in Fig. 1. A broad shelf 

 (a) is fixed at the back of the house, and the perch placed four 

 or five inches above it, a foot from the wall. The nests are 

 conveniently placed on the ground underneath, and need no 

 top, whilst they are perfectly protected from defilement and 

 are also well shaded, to the great delight of the hen. The 



