134 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



roof and back should be shingled ; the rest of the joints should 

 be battened. The sills of the building may be sunk two or three 

 inches in the ground, but not more. I think that the experience 

 of a majority of poulterers has been that a wall foundation for 

 the poultry house, unless it is thoroughly cemented, is very 

 undesirable, both on account of its harboring rats, weasels, and 

 other vermin, and its being less comfortable in winter. The 

 floor should never be made of boards, but of earth, which can 

 be renewed, more or less frequently, at will, and the droppings 

 of the fowls, rendering it the best of manure. Some recom- 

 mend that a pile of saw-dust be kept near at hand, and a few 

 shovelfuls thrown into the house daily. I think that loam and 

 sods of green sward are better, because they not only absorb 

 and retain the ammonia, but furnish amusement and acceptable 

 picking for the fowls. There should be several large windows 

 in the front of the building, which may be protected by laths. 

 The entrance should be at one end. The interior should be 

 divided into two apartments, one ten, the other eight feet in 

 length, which may be separated by a partition of laths, with 

 a door for passage through. These apartments are designed, 

 the larger for roosting, and the other for laying places. The 

 roosts are most conveniently placed in the form of a ladder, 

 inclined to an angle of about forty-five degrees ; the lowest 

 should not be more than three feet from the ground, for valua- 

 ble fowls are often injured, sometimes fatally, by flying up and 

 down from high roosts. 



There should be two tiers of nests in the laying apartment, 

 one on each side of the passage to the roosting apartment ; and 

 as secrecy is the great point the hens strive for in laying, the 

 following is a very convenient plan for adjusting the nests. For 

 entrances between the two apartments, have two small doors 

 sufiiciently large for the passage of the fowls ; one at each end 

 of the lath partition. The nests should be placed in rows, 

 above each other, and accessible by hen ladders. They should 

 be boarded up on the side next the main passage-way of the 

 building, and separated 'from each other by board partitions. 

 Small baskets are most suitable for nests, being easily removed 

 and cleaned, in case lice or other vermin have taken up their 

 quarters in them to the annoyance of the fowls. These baskets 

 should have a liberal allowance of clean, short straw, or moss, 



