282 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Juke, 
Plan of a Poultry House. 
FIRST 1’RIZB BT “ POULTRY BREEDER ” (CHARLES H. 
COLBURN), MANCHESTER, N. H. 
The poultry house shown in the accom¬ 
panying engraving is built with the windows 
to the south. Fig. 3, a, is a door 18 inches 
square for putting in coal; b is a place for 
early chickens; c, boxes for oyster shells and 
ground bone; d, movable coops for liens with 
chickens. The inside doors are at e, e, e, e; 
boxes for grain at /, f; boxes for soft feed at 
g, g, and bins for grain are at h, h. A scuttle 
for the droppings is placed at i, in the pas¬ 
sage-way, under which is a receiving box, and 
a track laid to the door j. This door is hung 
with T-liinges, and opened only for the pas¬ 
sage of the box. A ventilating hole is left 
in the door. The nests for setting hens are 
at h; lobby for the hens at 1, and small 10 
by 12-inch openings through the wall for 
hens to enter yards, are shown at to. Other 
similar openings for hens to pass from yard 
to yard are at n. A small coal stove, o, is used 
to cook feed and for heating the rooms in the 
coldest weather. Lead pipes, p, boxed up 
and packed with sawdust, run under the floor 
of the passage-way from the water tank to 
the end pens, where a faucet is attached and 
regulated that water will fall into dishes. 
The windows are at g, 9 by 12 inch glass; each 
sash is arranged to raise. The roosts, r, are 
If by 3 inches, and rounded on the edge. The 
platform, s, under the roosts, is three feet 
wide, with a 2-incli strip on the front; the 
whole may be covered with zinc if desired. 
There are two rows of nests, t, under the 
roosts, made with movable bottoms and 
sides, and may be taken out and cleaned from 
the passage-way. There are eight doors 
opening into the passage-way, that eggs may 
be gathered without going into the pens. 
Two long doors (1 by 71 feet), hung with 
T-lnnges, open upward, through which 
droppings can be easily removed. A water 
tank, u, holding a few gallons, is boxed up 
and packed in sawdust. There is a ventilator 
in the center of the roof that can be opened 
or closed by a cord from the passage-way. A 
double set of drawers, v, for holding eggs, 
may be made over the grain bins. A lattice 
door, w, is built in the wall for chickens, 
with a tight door in the outside that can be 
fastened up or down as desired. Small 
chickens may be fed from the outside by 
sliding the window, and from the inside by 
letting down a board over the coops, or by 
opening a small door 
in the back of the 
coop. Over the sink, 
x, is a board (18 by 36 
inches) with hinges, to 
be raised up as a side 
table for holding fowls 
while being dressed. 
A cupboard under the 
sink holds the knives, 
lantern, etc. At one 
end of the cupboard 
is a box for oyster 
shells and ground 
bone. A pail is set 
at y to catch the blood 
when fowls are killed. 
Over this pail, screw¬ 
ed into the rafter, is 
a hook with cord at¬ 
tached, to hang up the 
poultry by the legs, 
and a cord with loop in it and a window weight, 
to be put over the fowl’s neck before being 
struck with the axe. A small passage under 
the walk, is for fowls to enter the yard. 
This poultry house can be built for $165.70, 
and when lathed and plastered will cost $25 
more. It may be constructed for $130 by 
having the studding and rafters 22 inches 
apart, instead of 16 inches, and by setting it 
on posts and planked up two feet, in place of 
brick underpinning. The following are the 
estimates of material: 
1 M Square Edge Boards for outside.$12.00 
150 ft. Matched Spruce for entry floor. 2.25 
400 ft. Pine Sheathing for partitions, platforms, and 
doors. 7.20 
100 pieces by % Pine for open work of partitions 
and caps. 50 
480 Chimney Brick. 2.40 
Lime and laying brick. 2.00 
400 Spruce Clap-boards, laid 4 inches to weather. 7.00 
3>f M. Shingles. 7.70 
Outside Door and Frame, 2 % by 6 )4 . 2.25 
8 Windows and Frames, 9 by 13, Glass., 16.00 
4 Sashes over Dusting Boom. 8.00 
30 ft. of Capping.30 
Hardware, including zinc,nails,locks, hinges, cords,etc. 10.00 
175 ft. Pine Boards for neBts, boxes, etc. 3.75 
1,168 ft. Timber. 16.25 
Labor. 20.00 
Painting. 10.00 
4 M. Brick. 22.00 
Lime, Cement, and laying brick. 10.00 
Iron Sink. 1.25 
155 ft. Pine Finish for outside. 3.10 
23 Matched and Grooved Boards over Dusting Boom 1.75 
Total..$165.70 
Roots as a Rotation Crop. 
All root crops, as turnips, mangels, and 
swedes, contain a large per cent of nitrogen 
and ash constituents. A wheat crop yield¬ 
ing 30 bushels of grain and 1-) ton of straw 
per acre, contains 45 pounds of nitrogen, 
phoshoric acid 23 pounds, and potash 28 
pounds; while a yield of 17 tons of turnips 
per acre gives 120 pounds of nitrogen, 33 
pounds of phosphoric acid, and 120 pounds 
of potash. The same area in mangels, pro¬ 
3.—PLAN OF THE POULTRY HOUSE. 
ducing 22 tons, yields 147 pounds of nitrogen, 
49 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 262 pounds 
of potash. The total ash constituents in the 
wheat crop is 189 pounds, against 690 pounds 
in the mangels, while the nitrogen is 45 
pounds in the former and 147 pounds in the 
latter. The root crop is therefore an ex¬ 
haustive one to the soil as compared with the 
cereals, represented by wheat in the above 
figures. 
The root crops differ among themselves in 
the amounts of the three leading essential 
elements needed by all growing crops, and 
also in their ability to gather them from the 
soil. Turnips and swedes are surface feeders, 
while mangels have deeper roots, and derive 
much of their food elements from the lower 
soil. Turnips and swedes are quick growers, 
and have great power of taking up nitrogen 
and potash, when present in a soluble form 
in the soil. With phosphoric acid it is quite 
otherwise, and frequent applications of 
superphosphates have a marked effect upon 
these crops. Mangels are able, by means of 
their deeper roots and the longer period of 
growth, to obtain the necessary food. The 
Fig. 1. —THE SOUTn SIDE OF THE POULTRY HOUSE. 
Fig. 2. —NORTH SIDE OF THE POULTRY HOUSE. 
Fig. 
