POULTR?Y-CRAFT. 29 
33. Continuous, or Sectional Poultry Houses. — Intensive poultry 
keeping, many fowls on a small plot of ground, is the practice of most 
progressive poultrymen. The colony plan reproduces as many times as 
desired the conditions of the ordinary farm flock. A system of continuous or 
sectional houses multiplies as often as desired the conditions of the best kept 
flocks. The colony plan allows but eighty to one hundred hens to the acre. 
The continuous house system with suitable yards, allows four hundred to 
five hundred hens to the acre. The failures of the first attempts at intensive 
poultry keeping were due to the failures of the poultrymen to provide meat 
food, vegetable food, grit, exercise. With these errors corrected, results 
soon showed the superiority of the intensive system for those who make 
poultry keeping a business. The fact that it is the system almost universally 
adopted, makes superfluous a recital of its advantages further than intimated 
in describing the colony plan, and to be mentioned in the description of 
different styles of continuous houses. 
34. Continuous House with Connecting Pens. —In a short house, 
or one containing a few long compartments, passage through the house is 
2S Se = Se Ses ee A i ee ee ee ane Fig. 8. Cheap Four Pen House. 
+ = __*"{ Dotted lines in the perspective indicate 
Positions of studs and rafters; in the 
ground plan, positions of roosts. 
| \ usually from pen to pen. 
ae ar ee pe eet Fig. § illustrates such 
‘ a house, containing four 
pens each 12 ft. square. It isa substantial, low cost house, the construction 
being the simplest consistent with strength and durability. It is built without 
sills or plates. The studs are spiked to short cedar posts, placed 4 ft. apart, 
set 1S in. into the ground, and projecting the same distance above ground; or 
the studs are used as posts, the end which goes into the ground having been 
coated with tar. The lower ends of the rafters rest upon the tops of these 
stud-posts; the upper ends are joined directly, being secured with spikes 
driven through each into the other, and all rafters 
except those at the ends being braced as shown in 
Fig. 9. The dotted lines in the drawing indicate 
the positions of studs and rafters. Each window 
Pigs? opening adjoins a stud on one side; on the other 
side a short stud, simply nailed to the sheathing, is placed. This short stud 
extends 6 to S in. above the upper edge, and a like distance below the lower 
