IN THE POULTRY YARD. 69 
tops with pieces of scantling and nailed pieces of the same scant- 
ling between them at the proper places. ‘Ihe rude frame thus con- 
structed was covered with cheap matched lumber placed vertically, 
and the roof was formed of the same material and covered with 
tarred paper. There was one small window at the end, and the 
whole of the interior, except the door to the nests, was lined with 
tarred paper in the same way as the large house, and as the 
board cover to the nests fitted snugly to the walls, both along 
its edge and ends, the amount of cold that got in by this 
way was but small. The roosts and other arrangements were 
the same as in the large house. ‘The figure on page 70 will give 
a clear idea of the construction of this poultry house, which, when 
finished, was snug, strong and tight, 
The front, which was 8 feet high, was placed facing the south, 
and against it was built a shed, but instead of a roof of glass, such 
as was used for the large house, I contented myself with two 
sashes such as are used for green-houses or hot-beds. The advan- 
tage of these was that no ventilators were needed—the sashes 
themselves serving for ventilators when the weather was warm. At 
the season at which the house was built, there was no need of this 
glass covered shed, except for rain, and for that a common board 
or brush shelter would have answered quite as well as one 
that was glass covered, but I wanted to test the working of a 
complete house before I went on to multiply them, and so I 
finished the entire structure—glass shed and all. Keeping poultry 
at certain seasons and under favorable conditions is mere fun. 
When the air is balmy and the fields are green, almost any shelter 
will answer for even the most tender little chicks, but when the 
storms of winter and early spring are upon us, and snow, sleet and 
frost cover the earth, then even the old birds find it hard work to 
maintain their existence. These difficulties I had fully experienced 
in former days, and I knew that while comfortable houses were a 
necessity, roomy sheds were no less essential. For this reason I 
had put a cheap roof over the manure pile, so that on wet and 
stormy days the hens might have a dry, warm place in which to 
