POULTRY ON THE GENERAL FARM 
Lands sloping to south or southeast, and that which dries 
quickly after a rain, will prove the most suitable for chick- 
ens. A gumbo patch should not be selected as a location for 
poultry. Hogs and hens should not occupy the same quar- 
ters, in fact, should be some distance apart, especially if 
heavy breeds of chickens are kept. Hens should be removed 
from the garden, but may be near an orchard. Chicken- 
houses should be separated from tool-houses, stables, and 
other outbuildings. 
Grading for chicken-houses is not commonly practiced, but 
this is the easiest means of preventing dampness in the house 
and is necessary in heavy soils. The ground-level may be 
raised with a plow and scraper, or the foundation of the 
house may be built and filled with dirt. 
A stone foundation is best, but where stone is expensive 
may be replaced by cedar, hemlock or Osage orange posts, 
deeply set in the ground. Small houses can be built on run- 
ners as described for colony houses for an egg farm. 
Floors are commonly constructed of earth, boards or 
cement. Cement floors are perfectly sanitary and easy to 
keep clean. The objections to their common use is the first 
cost of good cement floors. Cheaply constructed floors will 
not last. Board floors are very common and are preferred 
by many poultrymen, but if close to the ground they harbor 
rats, while if open underneath they make the house cold. 
Covering wet ground by a board floor does not remedy the 
fault of dampness nearly so effectually as would a similar 
expenditure spent in raising the floor and surrounding ground 
by grading. All things considered, the dirt floor is the most 
suitable. This should be made by filling in above the outside 
ground-level. The drainage will be facilitated if the first 
layer of this floor be of cinders, small rocks or other coarse 
material. Above this layer should be placed a layer of clay, 
wet and packed hard, so the hens cannot scratch it up, or 
a different plan may be used and the floor constructed of a 
sandy or loamy soil of which the top layer can be renewed 
each year. 
The walls of a chicken-house must first of all be wind-tight. 
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