Conveniences requisite. 21 



Commencing with those who only desire to supply their 

 own table, there are hundreds of cottagers and suburban 

 residents in the outskirts of our great towns, as well as 

 in the country at large, who might keep fowls yory easily 

 indeed. Eecent years have marked a great improvement 

 in the houses built in both town and country, so far as 

 open yards or gardens attached to them are concerned, 

 and in a few years we hope to see all those dwellings done 

 away with, where the back yards are just about the size of 

 a decent scullery. Taking the smaller houses first, if the 

 yard or back garden be a good sized one it will not be 

 difficult to give a piece of it, say about 12ft. or 15ft. long 

 by 6ft. wide, for the purpose of a poultry house and run, 

 which will be amply sufficient for half-a-dozen fowls. How 

 to build the house and prepare the run we shall describe in due 

 course, the cost of which need not be very great, whilst the 

 pleasure and benefit will be incalculable. Suburban residents 

 have generally a good strip of ground behind their houses, 

 and sufficient can often be spared to keep from half-a-dozen to 

 a score fowls, or even more where the place is an extensive 

 one. If economy is no object, then the houses and runs can 

 be made ornamental, and will add much to the appearance 

 of the garden or grounds. For these also, we shall have 

 something to say in the way of instructions as to how the 

 yard should be laid out and the houses built. Then again 

 as to cottagers, there are few in country places who could 

 not keep a score of fowls and rear half a hundred chickens 

 during the year. Any man handy with tools can easily 

 make houses and necessary appliances, or adapt existing 

 outhouses for the purpose, and at a very small cost. 

 Ground is generally to be had at a low cost, but there are 

 more often fields near over which the birds can wander with- 

 out doing any harm, and this more than doubles the accom- 

 modation without any proportionate cost. But that is not 



