a, Feeding-house, fitted up with boilers for cooking the food, from which pipes extend on each side for heating the laying and roostinghouses.

b, Sitting-place for turkeys.
c, Roosting-place for turkeys.
d, Sitting-place for hens.

e, Roosting-place for hens.
J, Feeding-shed, laid with stone.
g, Open shed, laid with sand.

h, Open shed with roosts, for pea-fowls.

i, Pheasantry, or place for choice land fowls.

kk, Places for choice aquatic fowls.

and m, Sleeping and laying places for ducks.

n and o, Sleeping and laying places for geese.

A pigeon-house may be erected at the lower part of the yard be. yond the pond, or one of the compartments marked k may be fitted up for pigeons.

places for the pea fowl and guinea fowls, both of which prefer roosting in the open air. The upper part of the yard which is near the henhouse, and which is covered with gravel, ought to be thoroughly well drained, so as to be as dry as possible; and the drains ought to be so contrived. as to carry off all the water used in washing the hen-house, without suffering it to approach the pond. Where aquatic fowls are kept, it is, indeed, a good plan for the other fowls to have drinking-troughs near the hen-house, which should be filled with pure water every day, and frequently and carefully cleaned out.

Besides the hen-house, there should be an open shed on each side of the poultry-yard, extend

ing as far as the part laid with gravel. The ground under one of these sheds should be laid with the large flag-stones called landing-stones, in order to have as few joints as possible; and under the other shed the earth should be dug out to the depth of a foot or more, and filled up with dry sand, to enable the fowls to take what may be called a sand bath, which is the principal means they have of getting rid of the body vermin with which they are generally infested, and which are very troublesome to them. The shed which has sand at the bottom may have bars under the roof, to serve as an occasional roosting-place for pca-fowl and guinea-fowl; but the one which has the flagstones should have no bars across it, as the stone floor is intended to serve as a place for feeding the fowls on, and it should be kept as clean as possible. It is a good plan to lay a few handfuls of unthreshed straw on this stone floor, in order that the fowls may amuse themselves with scratching out the grains; and they should always have a small heap of mortar, rubbish, or lime in one corner for them to peck, as unless fowls can have access to lime, or to some kind of calcareous earth, they will produce eggs without shells.

It is necessary to observe that land fowls are, generally speaking, much more tender in constitution than aquatic ones. The common hens, in particular, will never lay well unless they are kept warm; and, as a proof of this, it is well known by every

housekeeper that eggs are much scarcer and dearer in winter than in summer. As the different kinds of fowls require different treatment, it is necessary to keep them separate, and it is also necessary to keep those hens that are sitting separate from the rest. On this account the hen-house should be divided into five compartments, the centre one of which (a) may be much larger than the others, and furnished with a fireplace and boiler, for boiling potatoes and other food, from which should run hot-water pipes or flues, so contrived as to heat the whole of the compartments.

On one side of the central room may be a place for hen turkeys (b), as it is necessary always to keep them by themselves when they are inclined to sit; as, if the male turkeys see the eggs, they generally contrive to break them. Beyond this should be the roosting-house for the turkeys (c), provided with strong beams across, at a sufficient distance from each other, to suit large and heavy birds.

On the other side of the central room should be the compartment devoted to laying and sitting hens (d), and this should be fitted up with boxes (fig. 15.) which are made moveable, and placed not quite close to each other, as it disturbs sitting hens to hear other

hens close to them. The front part of each

box should be made to slide up and down, so that it may be taken out, and the box thoroughly cleansed with a brush and soap and water, when not in use. This sliding front, when closed, has an arched opening in front for the hens to go in and out; and this opening is made so as not to reach quite to the ground, in order not only to keep the nest warm and in its proper place, but to prevent any danger of the eggs being sucked by rats, or other similar depredators. The hen-room should be frequently whitewashed, say twice a year, care being taken to do it with as little disturbance to the fowls as practicable; and the floor, which should be either of stone, or laid with bricks, should be swept out every day, and washed occasionally when the weather is warm and dry. It is a very good plan to have the boxes raised with two pieces of wood below each, so as to leave a hollow space in the middle below the box, as this plan allows the house to be cleaned with greater facility.

The other room (e in fig. 14.) should be supplied with rails and perches to serve as roosting-places (fig. 16.), and

these rails are best of rough wood, as they afford a more secure restingplace for the fowls than if they were round and smooth. Fowls are very

apt to crowd together in their roosting-places; and, when the rails are smooth so that the claws of the fowls cannot take a firm hold of them, the youngest and weakest of the fowls are very often pushed off. The roosting-places should be furnished with a sloping board with sticks nailed across, to enable the fowls to ascend to them. All the rooms of the hen-house should have windows filled in with wire lattice; and they should have shutters to close in cold weather. In some cases they have ceilings like those of a house, and in others they are left open to the beams of the roof. The principal thing to attend to is to keep them scrupulously clean, and the walls frequently whitewashed. The roosting-place should have the dung removed every morning, and in warm weather it should be washed out every day; even in winter, unless the weather is frosty, the floor should be washed once a week. Sometimes, instead of fixed rails for the fowls to rest upon, hanging bars are suspended from the roof; and sometimes the nests for laying in and for sitting are fixed, and in two rows one above the other. Where danger is apprehended from thieves, the door of the roosting-house is kept locked, it being provided with an opening for the fowls to pass through.

Poultry should never be fed where they roost, if it can possibly be avoided, and their food should

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