52 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[ February, 
exerciae, but that is all. As far as affording in- 
sect-foraging is concerned, a paved court in a 
Fig. 1. — SOUTH ELEVATION. 
city, or a continuous rock, would be about as 
good. Ground room out of doors, upon our 
farm, -whether inclosed in yards or not, is solely 
for air, sun, and exercise. These secured, it 
matters not whether there is more or less space, 
so long as there are no insects to be procured. 
We hear much about the number of fowls 
proper to an acre of ground ; some say 50, and 
others 100; but in order to give a 100 good 
forage they should have the range of no less 
than 4 or 5 acres, containing grass and a variety 
of other crops. Now, if we give up as imprac- 
ticable, as we must, pasturage of this sort, and 
afford nothing but a field entirely bald, save for 
a few patches of clover and such other vegeta- 
bles as may be plucked when young- ami tender 
by the birds, under such circumstances one acre 
is as good as four. We go further, and say that 
15 or 20 rods of ground, and the grain for the 
fowls buried to induce exercise, will answer the 
purpose better than an acre without such an ar- 
tificial provision of natural conditions. But the 
feed, which must be all brought to the fowls, 
costs in money if purchased, or in labor if 
raised upon the cultivated part of the farm. 
In fowl-keeping upon a small scale, where one 
flock has for a range as large a portion of a 
farm swarming with insects as they choose to 
travel over, food is obtained for nothing. 
The food for fowls is more expensive than that 
of any other live stock in proportion to the val- 
ue of the animals themselves, necessitating 
economy in its choice. There are many things 
"good for" fowls, but we must use principally 
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Fig. 3. — GROUND PLAN. 
those only which supply all the needful nutritive 
elements, and are at the same time the cheapest. 
There are three classes of articles in which 
the natural and indispensable diet of fowls con- 
sists ; grains or seeds, green plants, and insects. 
Corn and wheat-shorts should be the main re- 
liance to fill the first division ; boiled potatoes 
and raw cabbage in winter, and newly-mown 
grass in summer, are the most suitable vege- 
tables, and chandlers' scraps and butchers' 
waste, procured fresh, are the most economical 
animal food, excepting near the coast, where 
clams and various sorts of fish can be obtained 
at a trifling cost. While depending mostly 
upon the above, because they are the best and 
cheapest, a great many other things must be 
given occasionally for the sake of variety, such 
as oats and buckwheat, both ground ; rye ; bar- 
ley ; wheat; brewers' grains; various vegetables, 
such as carrots, beets, and yellow turnips, 
boiled and thickened with corn-meal or wheat- 
brau; raw onions, chopped fine; and for animal 
food sometimes youug calves may be obtained 
from milkmen at a low price, and the carcasses 
boiled and fed. It must be an invariable rule 
to give every bird, whether young chicken, 
layer, sitter, or fattening for the table, a portion 
in each of the three divisions — grain, fresh veg- 
etable, and animal food — every day in the year. 
It has been asserted by some that there is no 
The south elevation of the granary and cook- 
house, fig. 1, shows the manner of making a 
"side-hill barn" on nearly level ground, the 
object being to drive the wagon containing dry 
earth to as high a point in the building as pos- 
sible. The drive-way is made of masonry and 
earth, excepting near the building, where a 
wooden bridge is substituted. A corresponding 
drive-way at the north end, shown in fig. 2, en- 
ables the team to pass out without backing. 
The dotted lines in figure 2 indicate the floors 
A A, which follow the inclination of the drive- 
ways till the level space B is gained at the cen- 
ter, where is a trap C, through which the earth 
falls into a hopper-shaped chamber, as men- 
tioned in our third article. For filling the cor- 
ners there are additional trap-doors at D D. 
This chamber or bin slopes at the bottom, the 
position of a part of which is shown by the 
dotted lines E E, which converge at the point 
F, where is a slide-door, through which the 
contents are discharged to be carried to the sta- 
tions, the wagon being backed for the latter 
purpose through the doors 6 G. West of the 
room, where the dry earth is discharged into 
the wagon, is a bin for potatoes, etc., built of 
Fig. 2.— EAST SIDE OP UBAKABY AMD COOKING-HOUSE. 
substitute that can fill the place of insects for 
poultry. We say that beef and mutton are as 
much better, as oats are better than grass for 
horses of which much work is demanded. A 
partridge or a wild jungle fowl can produce 
her normal number of eggs from forest fare, 
but not such quantities as are laid by a White 
Leghorn or Houdan. Two thirds of the grain 
fed must be ground. The natural mill of a 
fowl's gizzard, containing hard gravel for mill- 
stones, is capable of grinding all sorts of grain 
perfectly, but at too great an expense of muscu- 
lar exertion which, though involuntary, is se- 
vere, and employs force that had better be used 
for growing eggs or flesh. One half of the feed 
for both grown birds and chickens is cooked, 
because more easily digested, and because less 
is needed. We should cook it all only for the 
fact that a part raw is preferred by the fowls. 
The building which contains the cook-room 
must also store the grain and vegetables where 
they will be hand}', and dry earth is kept at the 
same place, because in connection with other 
apartments a receptacle may be most economi- 
cally constructed, which shall admit of labor- 
saving in the unloading and reloading of so 
heavy an article. 
thick stone walls, to prevent freezing. This 
bin is filled from above by driving a load of 
roots to the floor B, and allowing them to slide 
down an inclined plane. The cook-room, with 
which the window H communicates, occupies 
the north part of the lower story of which fig. 
3 gives a ground plan. /, cook-room with its 
outside (north) door J. K, grain-bin entered at 
the door L. The root-bin is at M, and entered 
at the door JV! The cook-room is used in win- 
ter as a place in which to dress fowls, and con- 
tains also a work-bench with tools. The cook- 
ing apparatus is at 0. There is no chimney 
proper, but only a chimney-top supported by 
strong timbers near the peak. A brick flue 
rises from O perpendicularly as far as the 
eaves, terminated by an ordinary stove-pipe, 
which conducts the smoke to a large drum 
in the upper room, and from thence to the 
chimney-top. In this way the garret is warmed 
to accommodate in February a few of the early 
chickens. The south wall of this nursery 
apartment is well glazed — see fig. 1. Enough 
late fall chickens of the half-blood sitting va- 
riety are raised to tenant it during December 
and January. The dimensions of the building 
are 36 by 30 feet, with 18 foot posts. 
