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maximum number of fowls in one flock should not exceed fifty. 

 If more are kept, they should be divided into several flocks. The 

 first necessary step, then, before selecting the poultry, is the 

 preparation of houses and yards, each furnishing suitable ac- 

 commodations for fifty fowls. In the preparation of these houses, 

 economy, together with the best facilities for giving the fowls the 

 greatest care with the least amount of labor, are objects always to 

 be kept in view by the farmer. In selecting a site for a poultry 

 house, a porous, sandy soil is the most suitable, and a south-east 

 exposure should be chosen. If a brook or spring of pure water is 

 accessible, and can be admitted into the yards, it will add not a 

 little to the comfort and health of the fowls. The dimensions of 

 the house need not exceed eighteen feet by ten, and the height 

 eight feet at the back or north side of the house, and six feet at 

 the south. This plan is most desirable, because the roof will be 

 simple and sloping to the south, and there will be no waste of ma- 

 terial or space. The material should be well-seasoned stock ; the 

 frame may be made of three inch joist and covered with one inch 

 boards ; the 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, imless it is thoroufiMy cemented, 

 is very undesirable ; both on account of its harboring rats, wea- 

 sels 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 recommend 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 apart- 

 ments, one ten, the other eight feet in length, which may be sep- 

 arated 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 valuable 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 fol- 



