THE POULTRY BOOK. 
9 
and ladders for tHe ascent of the birds. The floor is deeply covered with a thick 
layer of dry pulverized earth, on which the manure falls, and which acts as a 
most efficient deodorizer. The manure falling below the perches during the 
night is removed early in the morning, but that deposited during the day mingles 
with the dry earth covering the floor of the run, which consequently requires to be 
renewed at stated intervals. At the back of each closed run is an open run of 
similar size ; this is covered with a layer of ordinary farm-yard straw manure, so as 
to afford the fowls exercise in scratching for food. The fountains are placed in the 
inner runs, and are raised on a shelf, so as to prevent the fowls scratching the loose 
dirt of the run into the water. The feeding-troughs are on either side of the long 
central corridor, and, with the laying-boxes, occupy the entire front of each run. 
Over the runs for the large fowls are situated others for the young chickens : 
these are of the same length and depth, differing merely in being less in height. 
The entire length of the building is constituted by a repetition of exactly similar 
compartments (two only being shown in the engraving), making up a total length 
of 360 feet, or 120 yards. 
The interior of the corridor is used as a vinery, the vines being trained under 
the glass roof. At one end of the building is an excavation containing a furnace ; 
from this an air-flue proceeds under the floor of the central corridor along the 
entire length of the building. In winter this will furnish a constant supply of 
warm, pure air, which will ensure the efficient ventilation of the house. 
Each of the homes or runs is intended to accommodate six or seven fowls — a 
cock and five or six hens; it having been found by experience that if a larger number 
of fowls are placed in a run the dry earth becomes moist and ceases to deodorize the 
manure. The specimens of Houdan, Crevecoeur, and La Fleche fowls are of very 
high excellence. At the present time the birds have been in confinement about six 
months, and are still in admirable condition — a state of things that may be attributed 
partly to the judicious system of feeding, but more particularly to the employment 
of dry earth in the runs. This has the effect of entirely absorbing all odour, and 
renders the air of the building purer than that of any ordinary poultry-house. 
The ground on which the building stands is about six acres in extent, and it is 
proposed to cover it with ranges of houses placed sixty feet apart, each range 
being precisely similar to the one at present erected. 
In order to render the whole concern as self-supporting as possible, the intervening 
spaces between the houses is to be cultivated as a market-garden, the fowls sup- 
plying the requisite manure to the gardens, and receiving in return the trimmings 
of the green crops, which will be minced up with their food. Animal food will be 
supplied in requisite quantity, and grain and meal in due proportion. 
The experiment differs from many that have been previously tried ; as instead of 
aiming at keeping a large number of fowls at large in a moderate space, it perfectly 
secludes each set from the others. As far as the experiment has been tested, it 
appears to have been successful. The building is sweet and wholesome, the air 
pure, the fowls in good condition, and laying very freely when the time of year is 
