A ROOMY PLANT FOR A SMALL SPACE. 83 



space as it is possible to give poultry on many large village lots. I occupied these premises as 

 lessee for several years before buying my home, and the buildings used were put up with 

 the intention of removing them at the expiration of the lease, and were moved then, though 

 circumstances necessitating my absence from home at tbe time made leaving the work to a 

 man not familiar with the construction of the large building unavoidable and the job was badly 

 handled. 



A part of the house A was on the place when we moved there. At a cost of about five dollars 

 a sbed was added to this little house which more than doubled its capacity. This house was 

 used in the season for one breeding pen. The yard joining it is 40ft. wide by 150 feet deep. For 

 shade it has a large grape vine, a small apple tree, and several pear trees. 



The yard space available in front of the new house B, was not quite 100 ft. in width, and 155 

 ft. in depth. There were three rows of apple trees in this space, and in order to divide the 

 shade as evenly as possible, as well as to make yard room for the fowls in the 6 x 12 pen, the 

 principal division fence was put on the line of the middle row of trees, this being about 10 ft. 

 nearer the west than the east wall. Then the yard for the small pen was taken in the corner of 

 the east and larger division. 



Buck of A, and a little to one side is the bantam house, C, the fowls from which had the 

 liberty of the lawn. By dotted lines in the west pen of B is indicated a partition put in tempo- 

 rarily at times for the accommodation of a small special mating, the yard being as indicated by 

 the dotted lines outside. 



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The plots and descriptions of these plants as I have given them, indicating the positions and 

 dimensions of houses and yards, afl'ord but an incomplete idea of the plants themselves. In 

 each the spaces available outside of the yards must be regarded as essential features, giving the 

 opportunity to raise young stock under better conditions than are possible with close yarding, 

 and also to put out the old stock at times to give it a change and rest. 



I might describe a number of other plants, but cannot at present give plots of them, and in ft 

 general way the descriptions of the best of those w r here continuous long houses are used would 

 be but a repetition of some of these, with variations according to the size of the plant, the "lay" 

 of the land, and the proprietor's appreciation of the needs of his stock and the advantages and 

 possibilities of the situation. 



Where the colony plan, or any modification of it, is used, the houses are usually so much 

 scattered that to plot the poultry houses and ranges on a scale that would give any correct 

 appreciation of the arrangement, is not practicable for use in this connection. Besides, the 

 colony plan more than any other, requires to be adapted to the features of tbe farm and to 

 other operations carried on upon it, and the variations in it made from time to time with refer- 

 ence to those things may give very different arrangements in each of a series of years. In a 

 nutshell this system consists in distributing about the farm, as is at any time most convenient, 

 a number of small poultry houses of a capacity of several dozen hens each. 



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In tbe laying out of a permanent system of houses and yards the most important point to 

 consider is the convenience of the keeper and economy of time and labor in caring for the 

 fowls. In making this statement I assume that the comfort of the fowls and their needs 

 indoors and out have had due consideration in tbe decisions as to the style of house to be used 

 and the kind of yards. Of course in practice we cannot make such a separation of points to be 

 considered, taking up one at a time and deciding it. We have rather to settle each point tenta- 

 tively, then taking it up in connection with the next decide whether it can be carried out as we 

 had planned or must be modified or entirely changed to get best results. One style of house 

 might be preferred if each house was to contain only a few pens, while if a house of many com- 

 partments was to be built another plan might be better. The house plan preferred might 

 require a system of yards which in eome situations would be the best, because they would 

 utilize all tbe laud available for yards, but in other situations would not be satisfactory because 

 they left out of use land which with another style of house and arrangement of yards oould be 

 used to the great benefit of the stork, and with some saving as well. 



