IN THE POULTRY YARD. 179 
viding board and next the middle passage. These stakes held the 
dividing boards in place, and the end boards stood between them 
and could be. easily lifted out; in fact, they formed doors to the 
compartments, ‘To keep the house warm I banked it up with 
leaves, which were kept in place by brush, and I put in an old 
cook stove with a lot of old pipe which ran the entire Jength of the 
building. This kept out frost, even in very cold weather. At 
night the sashes were covered with old matting. 
As soon, therefore, as we had a few clutches out we arranged 
this brooding house, started the fire,:and got it well warmed up. 
In this we were aided by a few days of bright sunshine, so that 
when, one afternoon, we put ten hens with their chicks, amounting 
to roo in all, in ten of the compartments, they' seemed to be enjoy- 
ing a summer atmosphere. The broods now began to come out 
very rapidly, and we soon had one side of the house full. 
‘The care of these chickens involved a good deal of labor. It is 
true that it was not labor of a very hard kind, nor did it require a 
great deal of intelligence to follow the rules which I laid down. 
We had very few sick chickens; indeed, we lost more by accidents 
than by sickness. To give an historical account of our method of 
management would occupy too much space, but the following will 
be enough to guide the intelligent reader. 
The great points in rearing early chickens are suitable food and 
warmth. The latter condition involves dryness as a special feature ; 
animals that are kept dry can resist a good deal of cold, but if once 
the feathers get wet and matted the bird becomes cold and chilled, 
-and it does not take much to chill the life out of a young chicken. 
To keep the chickens dry we found to be one of our most difficult 
tasks. If a saucer of milk or water was placed in the coop for: 
them to drink they were sure to get into it, and the hen would 
upset it and make the whole compartment wet and uncomfortable. 
The poultry stores keep on hand fountains like large bird fountains, 
by which this difficulty may be in a measure avoided, but these 
fountains are too expensive, are difficult to clean, and where milk 
is used they require too much to fill them. So for milk I used 
saucers, which I protected with a netting of wire; lor water J used 
