THE CULTIVATOR. 
63 
1858. 
alive. Any information in regard to the above will be 
gladly received. * j. b. 
Inquiry. —I have an inquiry to make of you or of 
some of your correspondents, through the Cultivator. 
It is this: I have a fine young milch cow, which emits 
the milk from her teats in very small streams, and I 
wish to know what can be done to remedy it. p. m’c. 
A Jumping Ox. — I have an ox that jumps, but does 
not throw fence. What is the best preventive 7 A 
Life Subscriber. Ohio. 
Stubborn Horse. —-I purchased a fine five year old 
mare, which foaled this spring, and she is the most 
stubborn beast I ever saw. I tried coaxing, but it was 
of no use, and I will wait for your answer before try¬ 
ing anything else. She harrows well, and in winter 
goes well enough, but when at the plow or on the 
cart, it is a wear and tear of conscience to use her. 
Please let me know if there is a way of breaking, her 
in. N. St. M., C.E. 
-«> » * - 
Construction of Poultry Mouses. 
In the construction of poultry houses but very few 
objects are to be aimed at, but these are of the utmost 
importance. They are, however, consistent with entire 
simplicity and economy; and most of the fixtures put 
up in poultry houses at a considerable expense, are not 
only useless, but are positively in the way of securing 
the advantages to which we refer; these are cleanliness, 
ventilation, and protection from the weather. In de¬ 
scriptions of this kind, these little particulars, which 
are just the things that the inexperienced want to know, 
are almost always omitted by the writers, because be¬ 
ing so familiar with them themselves, they consider 
them too trifling to be mentioned, forgetting how great 
an advantage this trifling knowledge has been to them. 
We shall therefore be more particular than may be 
thought necessary, as our articles are intended solely 
for beginners. 
We would insist, in the first place, upon a poultry 
house covering as much ground as possible, to afford 
room for the fowls to walk about under cover in bad 
weather. Hut it is not necessary that it should be very 
high, either for the nests or roosts. Nests even on the 
ground, are preferable to the high shelves often seen- 
which the fowls are very apt to convert into roosting 
places. And as to the roosts, fowls are very easily sat¬ 
isfied with roosts of a moderate height, say 4 or 5 feet, 
if there is nothing higher to attract them. Boosts of 
this height are much more convenient for the exami¬ 
nation of the poultry at night, to detect sickness, or 
select fowls for the table. We prefer a house, the 
length of which is at least double its width. Ours is 
24 feet long and 8 feet wide, in the form of a shed, 8 
feet high in the front and about 5 in the rear, so that 
all the water is carried off at the rear into a gutter. 
It is situated on a slope fronting the south, and dug 
somewhat into the hill behind, for the purpose of bank¬ 
ing it well, to keep out the frost. The whole of the front 
is composed of glass windows, sliding by each other in 
a horizontal frame; with the exception of four or five 
feet partitioned off at one end for nests. The expense 
of the glass is trifling in comparison with the benefit 
derived to the poultry, from having sunshine and light 
without exposure to the weather. 
Let the roof, with the northern and eastern sides, be 
perfectly tight, to exclude cold winds and driving rains, 
but do not be too particular about having the windows 
fit perfectly tight in front, as ventilation is absolutely 
necessary, and leaving the windows open in front 
all night when the weather is not severe, is much bet¬ 
ter than having a little hole open at each end of the 
house, to cause a draft completely through, often di¬ 
rectly upon the heads of the fowls, which is far more 
injurious than entire exposure. The roost may run 
along the back of the large room about two feet from 
the wall, and if not more than three feet from the 
ground, will require no ladder. 
It will be seen that I have made no provision for a 
roosting place separate from this room intended for a 
walk for the fowls in stormy weather. Nor is it neces¬ 
sary if it be cleaned daily, the trouble of which is re¬ 
ally less than cleaning once a month. And it is cer¬ 
tainly better for the fowls to roost in a spacious room, 
kept clean, than to he crowded into a small house, al¬ 
most air-tight, to inhale constantly the effluvia from 
the droppings of two or three, or perhaps six months, 
which are not removed for this length of time, because 
forsooth it is only the roosting place. 
If you have, as you should have, a high yard around 
your poultry house for the purpose of restraining the 
range of the fowls when desired, then in pleasant wea¬ 
ther the whole front of the house can be left open at 
night without danger from thieves, either two or four¬ 
legged. 
Now as to fixtures, let there be absolutely none, ex¬ 
cept movable ones, which can be taken out in a few min¬ 
utes, so as to allow every crevice and corner to be visited 
occasionally with boiling hot white-wash, to drive away 
vermin. Let the roost be, if possible, one plain, long 
pole, set in brackets at each end, so that it can be re¬ 
moved and cleaned or burned up and another substi¬ 
tuted. The floor must by all means be the bare ground 
well covered with a mixture of mortar and ashes, trod¬ 
den perfectly hard, except a hole in the corner filled 
with ground plaster and ashes for the fowls to dust 
themselves in. Sift occasionally a little ground plaster 
or ashes over the whole floor, and also over the shelves 
on which the nest boxes are placed, as this will allow 
of the droppings being more easily removed. In the 
spring you can remove the whole floor, to the depth of 
two or three inches, to your garden, and replace it with 
another. By this plan you can easily detect rat holes, 
and avoid the collection of filth and vermin beneath 
a board or brick floor. 
The end partitioned off for nests may have two sto¬ 
ries, so contrived that when hens commence setting on 
the ground floor, the laying hens can be diverted to the 
second story, say four feet above the other.' The boxes 
for nests should be from fifteen inches to two feet 
square, and about nine inches deep, with the middle 
half of one side sawed out half way down, to allow 
the hen to pass out and in without injury to the eggs. 
They must have no fastenings whatever, but be made 
of sufficiently thick boards to stand firmly by their own 
weight. Make them as tight as possible, and pour a 
little turpentine in the crevices ; then cover the bot¬ 
tom with wood ashes, and make the nest of clean straw, 
which is not so favorable to the production of vermin as 
hay. But we will leave the further consideration of 
this part of the business to some other time. Such a 
house as has been described, will, when whitewashed 
thoroughly, within and without, probably combine the 
essentials of room, cleanliness and protection for twen¬ 
ty-five or thirty fowls at as little expense as any other, 
and far less than some we have seen with all sorts of 
fixtures, of no use but to secrete vermin. H. EllicotVs 
Mills , Md. 
