THE POULTRY-YARD. 303 



The house should be considerably longer than wide, and 

 the perches run lengthwise in the center, both for conven- 

 ience in passing around them, and to insure dryness to the 

 fowls ; the middle perch should be the highest, and the 

 others be so graduated that the little ones can reach them 

 when they first begin to roost. 



Under these perches a sloping platform should be placed 

 to catch the droppings, an important item, both for clean- 

 liness and economy, since in this way all the valuable 

 guano is saved. The platform should be scraped clean 

 every day or two, and if each time a light sprinkling of 

 land plaster be scattered over it, so much the better, it 

 prevents the escape of the ammonia, and thus corrects the 

 "chickeny smell," that is often more decided than pleasant. 



A door for entrance, and one or more traps, with drop- 

 doors for the chicks to pass in and out, one into each divis- 

 ion of the yard, if the yard be divided into ''grazing sec- 

 tions," and then the house is complete, except the nests. 



These should be set on the floor, facing the wall in rows, 

 two or three nests in one connected piece, with breaks left 

 here and there in the rows for the hens to pass back and 

 forth ; there need be only a narrow strip left between the 

 nests and the wall, since, by making the tops movable on 

 hinges, they can be raised from the outer side and free ac- 

 cess to the nests obtained. 



Hens dearly love retirement and partial darkness, either 

 when laying or setting, and if the nests are faced outward, 

 or set on the floor without tops, like open boxes, they will 

 scornfully turn their backs upon them and hunt out some 

 quiet corner for themselves somewhere else. 



So much for the permanent yard and buildings. The 

 nursery, by the way, should always be of this character. 



Movable fences are often very desirable to have, and 

 form a splendid medium for fertilizing any particular spot 



