WHERE THE EGG MACHINES ARE KEPT. 
Barron’s “Semi-Intensive” Poultry House. 
This house is 72 feet long, IS feet wide, and eight 
feet high to the eaves. It has. a span-roof boarded 
underneath, and covered with corrugated iron on 
top. There are windows 
in the roof, which make 
it very light inside. 
There are also windows 
in the south wall which 
by ropes and pulleys 
and counte r-balance 
weights, can be raised 
or lowered at will. This 
makes the south wall 
an open front the whole 
length. U n der the 
windows 3S nests with 
a sloping top to keep 
hens from roosting on 
them are put. A storm 
screen three feet wide 
is put over the windows 
the whole length to 
keep out rain. This is 
very necessary in that 
part of England, where 
they expect it to rain 
at least four days in 
the week. 
On the opposite side 
is the roost platform 
live feet wide, running 
the whole length of the 
building. It is 2*4 feet 
from the floor. The 
2x3-inch perches are put 
transversely, not length¬ 
wise, and are IS inches 
apart. Mr. Barron says 
that he finds the birds 
incline to crowd to¬ 
gether, and get over¬ 
heated on long perches, 
and then get chilled. 
Being split up as these 
are into 40 short 
perches, distributes the 
birds more, and the 
ample space between 
the perches keeps them 
from fighting; and 
being all on one level 
they settle down more 
quickly. 
Every 12 feet this 
droppings board is di¬ 
vided up by partitions 
from the floor to the 
level of the eaves, where 
it is lathed over and 
straw is kept to absorb 
the moisture from the 
hens’ breath, also to 
prevent side and down 
draughts of air in cold 
weather. There are 12 
windows three feet by 
two feet in the roof, 
and 14 small windows under the droppings boards, 
these are 20 inches square, to make it light so that 
the birds can see to find the grain in the litter. 
Mater is contained in two large "piggins,” 
mounted on platforms to keep the litter out. These 
are entirely emptied, scrubbed out, and refilled 
every day. The wet mash, given towards evening, 
is fed in troughs standing on the floor. Mangels, 
turnips and cabbage are put into specially made 
troughs, with a standing board on each side a few 
inches above the floor. They have shells and grit. 
The floor of this building was made by putting 
about 20 tons of cinder on the ground, ramming 
down hard and level, then four tons of asphalt was 
poured on this, and a fine layer of cement finished 
the surface. This is one of the best floors on the 
INTERIOR OF THE BARRON ENGLISH HENHOUSE. 
A GROUP OF TOM BARRON’S WHITE LEGHORN COCKERELS. Fig. 64. 
farm, Mr. Barron writes, dry and serviceable. 
The runs, one on each side of the building, north 
and south, are reached by windows at each end of 
the building. The runs are the width of the build¬ 
ing, and are used alternately, the birds being kept 
in one about a week and then changed to the other 
while the first is al¬ 
lowed to freshen. This 
it does much quicker 
than here, owing to the 
abundant rain. Mr. 
Barron writes that it 
is impossible to keep 
the grass down with¬ 
out mowing the yards. 
This housing large num¬ 
bers with outside runs, 
Mr. Barron calls the 
semi-intensive system. 
The menu for these 
layers is as follows: 
In the morning there is 
fed a mixture of wheat, 
oats, cracked corn and 
“a little coarse wheat— 
say a decent sample of 
cockle’’ (this means 
wheat screenings), a 
few split peas and per¬ 
haps a little “dari.” 
(Kaffir corn.) The 
more kinds of grain the 
better: the birds hunt 
more to see what new 
thing they can find. 
The litter is cut straw, 
chaff, peat moss, etc. 
There is a ary mash 
composed of one part 
ground oats to three 
parts wheat bran, this 
is open to the fowls at 
all times. At noon a 
little more of this morn¬ 
ing feed is given, not a 
"feed," but just enough 
to keep them busy. To¬ 
wards night they feed 
in the troughs a mash 
composed as follows: 
"One-third bran, one- 
fourth middlings, one- 
fourth biscuit meal, 
one-eigath meat meal, 
fish or granulated meat, 
about one-eiglith clover 
meal or Alfalfa meal, 
changing the middlings 
sometimes for ground 
oats. This we mix with 
water from a large 
boiler, in which we have 
already a few bucket¬ 
fuls of whole oats. The 
whole is well mixed in 
a mixing trough, until 
a crumbly mash, not 
sloppy, is made, and 
Fig. 65. this is taken in a 
wheelbarrow and fed in 
the troughs. We give the birds all they can eat of 
this mash, and if there is a little left over we do not 
mind.” 
Mr. Barron says that the profit from such a 
house ought to be $500 a year, allowing for de- 
