50 
[February, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
men. (3.) Unless they are lined with cambric 
muslin, the fowls are liable to be handled, poked 
at with sticks, and to have their feathers pulled 
out, etc., by mischievous boys or men. (4) 
The poultry are in a constant state of excite¬ 
ment, seeing everything that goes on. (5.) They 
feel every draft, and are chilled.by the constant¬ 
ly changing air. (6.) The coops are far too 
large for traveling boxes, and as they are 
carelessly tossed about, the fowls are thrown or 
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Fig. 3.— hasp. 
Fig. 3,-^INSIDE OF BOX. 
slide from one side to another, breaking their 
feathers, if not getting bruised. (7.) A large 
percentage usually arrives sick with colds, and 
the roup is almost sure to follow colds taken in 
this way. Colds pass into roup most rapidly 
and imperceptibly; especially if there be a 
roupy fowl within a moderate distance. (8.) 
The coops of differ¬ 
ent breeders are 
recognized by per¬ 
sons familiar with 
our poultry shows 
quicker than the fowls, which effectually pre¬ 
vents that ignorance on the part of the judges as 
to the exhibitors which is considered so im¬ 
portant. These are by no means all, but they 
are the principal disadvantages of the old system. 
The N. Y. State "Poultry Society, according 
to. the prize schedule, rules, etc., before ns, does 
much to abolish all this by provid¬ 
ing exhibition coops, and not per¬ 
mitting exhibitors to *se their own. 
This does away with the last ob¬ 
jection (No. 8), and a very serious 
one it is. As for the other seven, 
the individual exhibitors are re¬ 
sponsible for them; being no longer 
required to bring their own show- 
coops, they may place their poultry 
for the journey in as comfortable 
boxes or hampers as they please. 
We describe some which are within the 
means of everybody. First, fig. 1 is a cubical 
box which, if intended for large Asiatic fowls, 
should be about 20 inches every way. The 
material may be live eighths to three quarters 
inch spruce, larch, or pine, if lightness is a 
requisite, and it should be planed on the inside, 
and put together as close as possible. One entire 
side of the box is a door; in the door is a 5 by 
5 window, covered by woven wire, nailed on 
upon the outside. Upon the door the feed 
and water holders are attached, as seen in 
fig. 2, so that the light from the 
window will fall full upon the wa¬ 
ter and the grain. In the middle 
of the top a hand-hole is cut of 
sufficient size to admit the fingers 
of a large man’s hand. The door 
may be hung upon a pair of com¬ 
mon butts, hud the simplest and 
best fastening is made by taking a 
piece of stiff hoop-iron and punch¬ 
ing three holes in it, as shown in j,. & 
fig. 3. This is attached by “ clout lg ' 
nails” or screws to the side of the box in such 
a way that the end containing the hole at the 
Teft hand will project through the door a little 
way from the edge; this hole is supposed to 
be large enough to receive a padlock. 
The water-holder (fig. 4) is simply a common 
junk-bottle, inverted into a small tin-cup, and 
held suspended by wires, so that its mouth will 
not touch the bottom of the cup; both the cup 
and the bottle being attached to a piece of board 
which may be fastened by two screws in Us 
place upon the door. There is little or no 
danger of the bottle breaking from frost, if a 
sound bottle is selected, the form of which is 
slightly conical. The water may freeze solid in 
such a bottle, provided it is inverted, and it will 
not break. 
The feed-box (tig. 5) is made by taking a piece 
of board, 5 inches wide by 12 long, nailing a 
piece 3 inches wide, having the front corners 
rounded off, upon it at light angles, about an 
inch from one end; and then, first taking a 
sheet of tin, 9 inches long and 8 inches wide in 
the clear , that is, after allowing for the lap suf¬ 
ficient to nail in, say half an inch on each side, 
tack it upon the sides of the board, beginning 
half an inch from the top. It will form an arch 
or half-cylinder, extending to within an inch of 
the little board at the base, around which bottom 
tack apiece of tin, the upper edge of which has 
been turned over, extending a little higher than 
the bottom of the half-cylinder. This will hold 
Fig. 6.— POULTRY HAMPER. 
corn enough for a trio of well-fed fowls for three 
days upon a journey. 
When the fowls are transported, the floor 
should be covered with dried earth and clean 
straw, the birds well fed, sponged and cleaned, 
put in dry, and locked up. If care is taken in 
the construction to leave no slivers or rough 
edges of tin, ends of wire, or screw-heads, the 
feathers will not be harmed; the birds will be 
quiet, they will not catch cold, nor freeze their 
combs or feet in severe weather, and so all the 
objections from 1 to 7 may be avoided by this 
: simple traveling Box. 
; Fig. 6 represents a common hamper ®f willow- 
ware, easily made by any one familiar with the 
first principles of basket-making. When used 
for transporting fowls, it should be lined on the 
top and sides with cotton cloth, tacked in with 
strong thread. The water and feed vessels 
may be easily attached to the sides. 
Fig. 7 is inserted as a suggestion. It repre¬ 
sents one of the large baskets made for the use 
of paper-box manufacturers. It would be very 
easy to place in cross-pieces resting upon those 
strands which are woven in to strengthen the 
sides in the middle, and to lay upon these 
crost-pieces a movable floor made of thin wood 
or wicker-work, dividing thus the basket into 
itwo stories. Each of the stories might again 
*be divided into two or three compartments by 
Fig. 7.— paper-box-makers’ basket. 
partitions of sacking or of strong cotton stuff, 
which should be carried also around the out¬ 
side. With plenty of straw, feed, and water, 
several trios might thus be sent by express at a 
cost not exceeding that required to send one or 
two in exhibition coops. 
Ogden Farm Papers.—No. 25. 
When my autumn work was well advanced, 
and I could spare a little time away from home, 
I indulged in that most profitable of all pastimes 
for a farmer—a little foreign travel. Without 
much thought of “ agriculture,” only bent on 
having a good time, I went to visit some friends 
in Montreal, with an eye to the cheap clothing 
and French Catholic oddities for which that 
charming old town is noted. My friends thought 
to entertain me by showing me some of the 
farms in the neighborhood of the city. Not to 
seem rude, I made no objection, but I went, 
with some indifference, to see what the colonial 
agriculture was like. I came back a wiser man 
than I went, and, if the truth must be known, a 
sadder one ; for I must frankly confess that I 
saw among the British settlers of Canada better 
farming than I had hitherto supposed to exist 
in America. 
I might fill several columns with general obser¬ 
vations as to the farming of Mr. Sheldon Stephens, 
Mr. Sheddeu, and other worthy examples, but I 
believe it will be more useful to my readers if I 
describe somewhat in detail a single instance 
of good agriculture, which seemed to be more 
strikingly suggestive than the others for an av- 
