3G0 THE VILLA GARDENER. 



seen tunnels of tliis sort under barn floors, to admit fowls from the farm- yard 

 to the rick-yard, without entering the barn ; and we conceive an enclosed 

 gangway fixed to a garden wall, or to the fence of a frame-ground (such as is 

 shown in several of Mr. Rutger's designs, in preceding pages of this work), 

 would answer the purpose of conducting the fowls from the poultry-yard to 

 the public road. 



438. All poulfry-Jiouses should have the following particulars attended to in 

 their construction. They should all face the south or south-east ; and all 

 should have walls hollow, or of sufficient thickness to exclude extreme cold 

 in winter, and excessive heat in summer. A 9-inch brick wall, like that 

 employed in England, is not sufficiently warm, even for the climate of Lon- 

 don, unless the bricks be kept so far apart as to form a vacuity of at least 2 in, 

 in the interior of the wall. The height of the side walls should not be less 

 than 7 or 8 feet ; but 9 or 10 feet would be preferable, as admitting more 

 perfect ventilation by openings, covered with latticework or wire, immediately 

 under the roof. The side walls should be plastered with cement, or with 

 sound lime and sand, so as not to harboin- insects, and to admit of being 

 washed to destroy their eggs, if any should have been deposited on them. 

 The ceilings should, in general, be treated in the same manner, and the floors 

 should be laid with smooth pavement, so as to admit of being washed out as 

 clean as any kitchen floor. In every poultry-house there ought to be a win- 

 dow, with the sill about 3 or 4 feet from the ground ; the sashes being glazed, 

 and constructed so as to slide past each other in grooves. There should be 

 inside shutters to these windows, for use during winter; and outside shutters^ 

 lufler-boarded, to close during summer, when the sashes are kept open all 

 night. Close imder the eaves, there ought to be an opening for ventilation, 

 exactly over the window, of the same breadth, and a foot iu depth, with a 

 wire grating, and a shutter on the inside, to slide in grooves, and which should 

 have a cord attached to each end, hanging down within reach, so as to draw 

 it on or off at pleasure. The roofs of all poultry-houses should project suffi- 

 ciently to protect from rain the side- walls, and the outside stair or ladder,, 

 which is made for the fowls to get up to their roost; and there ought always 

 to be gutters, to collect the water from the roof, so as to keep the ground 

 immediately in front of the poultry-house doors as dry as possible. Each 

 kind of poultry should have two apartments : one for roosting in, and the 

 other for laying and sitting in ; and, in large establishments, there may be 

 two or three other houses, for fattening in, for confining individuals rendered 

 luiflt to be at large from their pugnacity or from disease, and also for rearing 

 young chickens, unless there should be plenty of room for this purpose in the 

 laying-houses. 



439. Fattening poultrij. — With respect to fattening poultry of every kind, 

 it may be proper to observe, that the preceding recommendations as to fatten- 

 ing-houses, have been given on the supposition that every kind of cramming 

 and confinement in coops for fattening is to be given up ; and that the fowls 

 are to be kept constantly in good condition, and only confined for a week or 

 two in a feeding-house, with a small yard attached, immediately before being 

 killed. We may also observe that fowls, so far from fattening better alone 

 and in solitary coops, actually eat more, and consequently fatten faster, when 

 several are kept together, and free access allowed them to food at all hours ot 

 the day. A corresponding system has for sonic years past been adopted fosr 



