4 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



Or the wood may be tarred, then covered with thick brown 

 paper tacked down, and again tarred ; or calico will be still 

 better. Or the wood may be covered with roofing felt. 



An aspect anywhere from south-easterly round to the 

 west is an advantage when the back of the house and shed 

 is a wall, and if the wall back on to a fireplace or stable, such 

 very mild warming is an advantage in winter. But neither 

 is necessary if the shed is light and the floor dry. 



This brings us to the floor of house and shed. The 

 fowls will stand activity over wet runs, on which they only 

 walk at their choice ; but cannot be kept successfully in 

 confinement we say absolutely that they cannot, for long 

 if the floor and walls of the house, and floor of the shed on 

 which they depend for shelter, be not dry. However damp 

 the ground, this can almost always be effected, by digging 

 and taking away till hard earth be reached, then putting on 

 a layer of broken bricks, or stones, or clinkers, from one to 

 two feet deep, in any case enough to raise the level six 

 inches above the ground, and on this a layer of concrete 

 made of hot fresh-slaked brown lime, and gravel or pounded 

 clinkers. Sometimes it is better to use a dry mixture of 

 quicklime pounded, gravel, and tar, the smell of which 

 repels rats and mice. If there is definite cause to dread rats, 

 however, it is worth while to lay small-mesh wire netting 

 over the beaten-down surface of the drainage material, and 

 below the concrete, and to carry it a foot up all the wails. 



A shed thus floored, and with the roof well projecting, 

 and boarded up a foot or more, will be nice and dry. On 

 the hard floor can be placed dry earth, or ashes, or sand, or 

 straw, to be periodically removed when contaminated. On 

 dry soil all this is not, however, necessary. Mere trodden 

 earth will do for the house, and also for the floor of the shed 

 in that case ; but in the shed some inches of earth should 

 first be removed to be returned in a loose state, after the 



