PLANS OF YARDS. 17 



This may possibly be the case on a farm, or where a park 

 is available, or ample range is in some way at hand. In 

 such circumstances there is no better nor healthier plan 

 than to scatter about, in sufficiently distant and distinct 

 localities, a number of small detached houses, portable or 

 not. There is usually shelter under hedges, or trees, or 

 shrubbery, or plantation, where such a method is possible ; 

 hence such houses as Fig. 2, or still better, on the open plan 

 of Fig. 4, answer all purposes. Even a large hogshead, with 

 the head knocked out, turned on its side, a broad platform 

 fitted in near the ground, and a perch near the back end, 

 may be enough for a pen in the shelter of a copse or shrub 

 bery. Both grown fowls and chickens will be kept in 

 magnificent bloom and condition upon this system, the only 

 drawbacks to which are the rarity of the cases in which it 

 can be followed, and the time which will be consumed in 

 going round and attending to the different lots of birds, old 

 and young. 



Ranges of pens and runs are far more usual and practi- 

 cable. Here, also, detached houses and sheds may be placed 

 singly in each run. But a range of such buildings is more 

 convenient, and less costly in time and labour. The first 

 example we ever met with of a plan which has since been 

 adopted widely on a larger scale, was the poultry-yard of 

 the late Mr. Henry Lane, of Bristol, well known in the 

 " sixties " as the most successful exhibitor of Spanish fowls, 

 and which is still worth reproducing as an example of this 

 style of yard in comparatively limited space. 



In this design (Fig. 7) A is a covered passage which runs 

 along the back of all, and, by a door which opens into each, 

 allows of ready access to any house in any weather. One 

 end of this passage may open into some part of the dwelling- 

 house if desired. The passage should have a skylight at top, 

 and must also be freely ventilated at the roof; to secure 

 C 



