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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
made in the shape of the house at Fig. 1, in 
which the nest-box, with the hen, maybe placed, 
so that when the ohicks are hatched, they need 
not be removed, When thus managed, one hen 
will care well for twenty ohicks. These may 
be taken from other hens which may be 
makes a so-called fountain which supplies fresh 
water for several days. When the small chicks 
are robbed of food by the larger ones, a feeding 
coop may be made as shown at Fig. 7- The top 
is made to rise upon hinges or otherwise, and 
the food is put into the coop, which the large 
chickens cannot enter. A cleanly feed trough 
po that it can be thoroughly ventilated at all 
times, and let it face either the south or east, 
and let the front be partly glazed. 
Choice of Varieties. —8eoond, procure some 
variety of pure-blooded fowls; they will be 
found much more profitable than the common 
dung-hill stock. My preference is for the Brah- 
pests. The perches, too, should be saturated 
once a week with kerosene oil. This will have 
a tendenoy to keep lioe in a measure under sub¬ 
jection. I believe that half the cases of ohicken 
cholera are caused by the effects of lice. 
Proper Food. —Fourth, good, wholesome food 
should be fed regularly and at stated times. 
Neither Bbould they be confined to one particu¬ 
lar kind of food, such, for instance, as can be 
obtained by a free run to the corn orib; but 
they should be fed all they will eat up clean of 
food of various kinds, the nature of which will 
be readily indicated by a study of their wants. 
Fifth.— TheyBhould always be provided with 
plenty of clean, pure, fresh water, and an occa- 
**• flffA 
turned out to lay again. The nest-box Bhonld 
be low and not too large, so that the hen can 
step in and out without breaking the eggs, and 
that the eggs may not be spread too much so as 
to be uncovered, A well-shaped nest-box Is 
made as shown in Fig. 2. This is ten inches 
square and three inohes deep. These nests can 
be moved from place to place with the hen, at 
night, without trouble, and when the chickB are 
hatched, the first that come can jump in and out 
at will and are not lost, as with deeper nests. 
The best material for the nest is soft meadow 
hay, and if a little kerosene oil Is poured on the 
bottom of the box. before the nest is made, lice 
will not come near it. 
COOPS. 
When the young chicks appear, and begin to 
run around, the hen should be cooped in a place 
where the young brood can have a clean rnn. A 
grass plot is a good place, but the garden is the 
best. The little things will early learn to hunt 
insects and will wander off a long distance afler 
them, arid stay for hours scratching beneath 
bushes and in [the borders for prey. This 
WINTERING POULTRY IN THE ‘ COLD 
NORTH.” 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
The originals of our domestic fowls are na¬ 
tives of a warm climate. Yet the old “com¬ 
mon stock" has become so well acclimated that 
in Southern New Eagland and all the country 
below it, they ondure the winter without much 
protection, often roosting on trees or under 
open sheds, all through the cold weather. But 
in Northern New England and Lower Canada, it 
is quite a problem how to winter fowls, and es¬ 
pecially the fancy kinds, in health, and without 
loss or toeB and combs from freezing. Many 
fanciers have means for warming their poultry 
► h0U8es in Bevcre weather, bnt ordinary farmers 
will not go to the trouble and expense needed 
to construct such conveniences, I will give my 
notions derived from observation and exper¬ 
ience, of the boat cheap way of wintering fowls 
where the thermometer spends much of its time, 
at that season, among the minus twenties. 
Fowls will endure dry cold much better than 
damp cold. Dampness, indeed, begets fatal 
disease among poultry very quickly. Now, the 
problem is how to have the poultry house as 
warm as possible, and yet not damp. Finding, 
several years ago, that in an ordinary boarded 
and battened house, with the whole south side 
glazed, my fowls suffered badly from freezing 
daring cold nights, I removed them to the cow 
stable where it never freezes, only to have 
them die from the dampness generated by the 
breath of the cattle. 8ince then I have de¬ 
vised a po ultry hou se that works muoh better, 
though BtiHrftWancy breeds, it is sometimes 
too cold. The walls are made double by board¬ 
ing up on the inside of the studdlDg and filling 
in the interspaces with sawdust. Then, instead 
of a whole glass aide on the Bouth, there is a 
row of large (12 by 15). single-pane windows 
around the east, south and weBt sides, two 
feet from the floor. Ab the son runs low in the 
cold months, it is necessary to have the win¬ 
dows low, so that the sunshine may strike the 
floor instead of the wall, where the hens cannot 
get into it. In Buch a house as this, ten by 
eighteen feet, tweuty-flve fowls can be win¬ 
tered in tolerable safety and comfort. They 
must, of course, be well fed, supplied with gravel 
and cracked bone, and with dusting boxes, and 
the houses frequently cleansed, white-washed, 
and the roosts kerosened. Thsy should be al¬ 
lowed to run out as late In the fall and as early 
in the spring as possible, and whenever the 
ground Is bare In the winter. If they get scaly 
legs, rub In a mixture of lard and kerosene. 
Feed corn freely, bnt net exclusively. Buck¬ 
wheat, barley and oats make a good variety, 
and remember that fowls are essentially c&rnlvnl 
does much good and no harm, and should 
be encouraged. A coop of chicks under a cherry 
or plum tree, will make a good preventive of enr- 
•culio. The ooops should be roomy and single. 
When double coops are used, the cbiokB get 
mixed and beaten by the strange hens. A con¬ 
venient coop is shown at Fig. 3. This may be 
thirty inches square, which will not bo too large 
by any means, and .the front should be twenty- 
four inches high. There is n door at one side, as 
seen in the engraving; and tho nest is shown by 
the dotted lines. When the chicks are a month 
old, the neat may bo taken away and the floor 
strewn with sawdust, which Is tho best Utter; 
eand or dry, fitted ashes are tho next best. The 
front of the coop Is lathed up and down, with 
three-inch spaces. A falling door should be 
fastened to the front, as shown, and should be 
closed, unfailingly, at night, when storms are 
expected or if vermin are feared. Rats are the 
most to be dreaded. 
A WINTER COOP FOR EARLY CHICKENS. 
For early ohicks a glazed coop and run may be 
made, as shown at Fig. 4, The hen may be set 
even at this season in safety, with such a ooop. 
The glazed sash rests upon the sides and ends 
of the coop, and when ventilation is needed, by 
reason of too great warmth on bright, suuny 
days, it may be raised at the upper end by means 
of small hlocks. The rnu is simply a few short 
boards nailed together, end to end, to make a 
sort of box, with light cross-bars an inch square 
placed across from side to aide, upon which a 
ho(-bed or other sash is placed. If this ooop 
or run is used in a house with a glazed front, 
it will serve effectively for raising chicks through 
the winter—or for chicks thathavo been hatched 
in an “incubator.” During last winter, the 
writer found the temperature in the ooop at 
mid-day nearly always too high, and at night 
when the saHhos were let down, the temperature 
never fell lower than fifty degrees. 
EEEO AND WATER TROUGHS. 
Young chicks, and old ones, too, are very 
filthy feeders. They will rather walk upon their 
food than not, and in this respeot are no im¬ 
provement on pigs. The careful breeder will 
provide such troughs for food and water, that 
this may not occur. More than half the diseases 
prevalent atnoug fowls, and nearly, If not all, the 
gapes, are caused by filth in the food or water. 
The best trough is quo of oast-iron covered with 
a wooden frame (Fig. 6), which prevents all 
waste and fouling of the food and water. After 
more than a year's experience with this, it has 
proved effective and has more than paid for 
itself in the saving of food. For small chicks, a 
clean water dish may be made of a flower-pot 
saucer, or a tin, shallow pan, and a wooden oover 
which is raised from the surface of the water by 
a few shmgle nails, as shown at Fig. 6. Or a 
common, empty fruit oan may be used by re¬ 
moving the top and outting a few small notches 
in the edge, filling it with water, covering it 
with a flower-pot, saucer or a tin dish, and re. 
versing it so us not to spill the water. This 
*** POULTRY N0TE8. ; 
When we recall the many new breeds of fowls 
—each excelling any before introduced—that 
have been offered for sale within the last dozen 
years, we might well oonclude that perfection 
has been nearly reached. It would seem that 
some of the latest breeds must be perfect in all 
respects, especially if we credit the statements 
of those having them for sale. One oan easily 
understand that persona who sell eggs and 
fowls at high prices, must “ get a run "upon 
^ 5 ? something new, or else their occupation would 
be gone. 
'fir’ll This is evidently tho principal reason why so 
Ijt : A many new breeds have been introduced. I have 
flj ke Pt nearly all of these new kinds, but have 
[fpu f *iled to find any material excellence that one 
J|jgl possesses over others, when all the points are 
considered. As layers, the Polands are not a 
-Pd whit behind any of the newer breeds. If meat 
ib wanted, the Brahmas have not been excelled. 
I have said it before, and will now repeat, that 
there is more in the feed, care, etc., than there 
Inst- is in the breed. Any one of a dozen kinds, if 
hot- well kept, will prove very satisfactory. Novices 
ixed in poultry keeping would do well to see what can 
1 be be done with those they possess, before inv 
hese ing in the new, high-priced breeds. 
B lack-breasted 
rightly managed. The following are a few of mu 
the most important points in this line: bat 
The Pouktbt-House.—F irst Beleot a dry, bed 
healthy location, and on it construot a building wit) 
that will ,be warm In cold weather, 
Arrange it 
