Povutry. 133 
cipal object, and the Gray Dorking where chickens are wanted 
for the table or for market. In reference to merely ornamental 
poultry, let “fancy” rule. 
18. Accemmodations.—No one should attempt to keep fowls 
without providing for them the proper accommodations to in- 
sure their comfort and health. These need not be expensive. 
A very simple house with appropriate accessories in the form 
of a yard, nests, feeding troughs, water basins or fountains, 
roosts, etc., can all be very cheaply furnished; or they may be 
more extensive, elaborate, and costly, if the proprietor’s wants 
require and his means permit. For plans and descriptions of 
these structures we must refer the reader to ‘“‘The House,” 
which forms another number of this series of manuals. We 
need only say here that they should be such as to secure 
warmth and efficient shelter from storms, without excluding 
light or air, both of which are essential to the well-being of 
fowls as well as human beings, 
“Most farmers,” Mr. Bement truly says, “ pay little or no at- 
tention to their fowls, suffering them to roam and run about 
when and where they please; to lay and hatch where it suits 
them best, and to roost on trees, under sheds, on the wagon, 
cart, hay-rigging, etc.—soiling by their droppings plows, har- 
rows, or whatever may chance to be within reach. This treat- 
ment is no less unprofitable than inhuman. No wonder such 
farmers get no eggs during the winter, and generally come to 
the conclusion that poultry keeping does not ‘pay.’” 
Whatever may be the form or size of your poultry-house, it 
should be so constructed as to secure as equable a tempera- 
ture as possible. This end is best attained by having the 
walls and roof lined, leaving an open space of from four to six 
inches between the outer and inner walls, which may be filled 
in with chaff, saw-dust, or dry tan. This will make it warm 
in winter and cool in summer. In addition to the inclosed por- 
tion, the house should have a broad piazza or shed attached, 
to which the fowls may retire for shelter in stormy weather. 
Hens always seek to avoid observation when laying, and it is 
