282 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 
the poultry house, so that it can be tipped up in front 
for the removal of the dish or for filling it with water 
(see Fig. 111). Whatever device is used, it must be 
easily cleaned and of free access to the fowls at all times. 
Cleanliness in all pertaining to the food and feeding 
is essential. Punctuality in feeding is a matter the 
French esteem of great importance, and it is being more 
and more regarded in the same light in this country. 
Hens are early risers, also, and do not like standing 
around on one foot waiting for their breakfast. The 
morning meal, with them, is the most important one of 
the day. 
In feeding grain to laying fowls, if the flock is a large 
one, great care must be taken that the grain is scattered, 
so that the weaker fowls are not jostled aside by the 
stronger ones. Our rule, in feeding all stock, is to see 
that the weakest ones have abundant room. While we 
soon can detect the unthrift of large animals when thus 
crowded away from their just share, we cannot so easily 
individualize the egg record of each hen in a large flock, 
yet we must charge the minor members of the household, 
when entrusted with feeding, to see that the least ag- 
gressive hens have room enough to get their due share. 
COMMON MISTAKES. 
In looking over the average poultry house in winter, 
the most common defects are as follows: Bare, damp 
floor, upon which the fowls stand and mope, and some 
times get rheumatism ; broken windows, letting cold air 
blow upon the roosts or upon the fowls in daytime. 
Both the above will check laying, and are common causes 
of roup. Damp droppings left for weeks to heap up 
under the roosts; lack of a supply of water, obliging 
the hens to eat snow, thus stopping the eggs; lack of 
plenty of good, sharp grit, which alone is a sufficient 
cause of failure; lack of fresh meat and cut bone fed 
