POULTRY NOTES. 



33 



The eastern half of the "hospital" house is divided into two 

 rooms, both tightly sheathed with matched boards on both walls 

 and ceilings. These rooms are intended for use in the carrying 

 out of experiments of a physiological character with poultry 

 in which it is necessary to confine individual birds in separate 

 cages. At the present time these rooms are being used- in a 

 study of digestion in poultry. 



In building this hospital house a number of features were 

 introduced which differ from the plans followed in the con- 

 struction of the other poultry houses o£ the Station's plant. 

 The house is set on lo concrete posts high enough so that there 

 is from 6 inches to a foot clear space under the floor timbers 

 over the whole of the house. Concrete posts are also used to 

 support the plank walk which runs along the front of the house. 

 It is believed that this arrangement will materially lessen the 

 trouble arising from the rotting out of floor timbers which has 

 always prevailed in the houses where the sills rest on a more or 

 less tight stone wall. An attempt was made in the construction 

 of the "hospital" house to make it rat proof by filling in with 

 cement the space from the top of the sills up to the level of 

 the top of the floor between the outside boarding and the floor 

 timbers clear around the house. This makes a rim of cement 

 around the floor about 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep. It is 

 felt that it will be difficult for a rat to gnaw through this and 

 get into the space between the sheaathing and the boarding of 

 the walls. Time alone, however, will tell how successful this 

 scheme is in abating the rat nuisance. This "hospital" house 

 is located about three feet to the west of House No. 2 and in 

 line with it. The appearance of the house is shown in Fig. 6. 



Fig. 6. Front view of new "hospital" house. 



