THE POULTRY-YAKD. 309 



This object is easily attained by using a low, triangular 

 trough, having a sloping roof over it, and wire-netting 

 with meshes wide enough to admit a chicken's head, but 

 no more, closing in the front and sides; let this trough 

 stand on a grassy spot, or a clean board floor, then the 

 fowls will always have clean, cool water ; wash the trough 

 out every two or three days, and, if lined with zinc, it will 

 be so much the easier to keep clean and pure. 



For the nursery a cheap and effective drinking-fountain 

 may be made thus: Take a tomato, or similar can, from 

 which the top, in emptying, has not been entirely cut out, 

 but only bent in ; straighten out the ragged edges so as 

 partially to close the can again, then cut a hole about the 

 size of a lead pencil, a quarter of an inch from the jagged 

 top ; fill the can with water, put a saucer on it, upside 

 down, then quickly invert can and saucer together; the 

 water will come out in the saucer until it reaches the level 

 of the hole, and will always remain at this point until the 

 can is emptied by the chickens drinking the water, which, 

 thus protected, will keep pure and clean. 



When the mother hen begins to show a disposition to 

 desert her little ones, let her coop be lifted into the main 

 hen-house and placed against the wall, then, when she does 

 leave them and goes upon the roosts, they will follow, and 

 thus be easily and naturally taught to seek the perches at 

 night ; if they don't, take their coop away. This is a more 

 important matter than is generally realized, although every 

 one who has raised chickens knows how much trouble and 

 annoyance is caused by this desertion of a brood. 



The poor little chicks, worried by the absence of their 

 one-time careful mother, and crying pitifully and vainly 

 for her return, huddle together in a corner of their late 

 happy home, shivering from the unaccustomed night ex- 

 posure, pushing, crowding, crushing each other, one and 



