on top. Long slough grass has been found good for this.

By setting a post each side of the door frame, and one to correspond with each in a line with the outside posts, and boarding up each side and fixing the top to be covered with hay, the door of the coop will be guarded from the cold. Of course an outside door of some sort will be necessary. The windows can be provided for in the same way or a box of some rough

lumber be made and set in as the banking up is being done.

Aside from a place reasonably warm to roost in, chickens, to do well, should have a warm, sunny place in which to exercise on warm days. Such a place can be made each side the coop in the shape of a lean-to facing the south. Set a line of posts the length desired to make the lean-to, and spike two by fours across the top, from one post to another, six to eight feet from the

ground. Then cut the poles of a length to make the desired pitch to the roof and lay one end over the two by fours (it is well to notch the under sides so there will be no danger of slipping), letting the other end rest on the ground. Lay fine-limbed brush across these, and upon this put the hay or straw covering. In this place can be put up nests and a dust box fixed and filled for them to wallow in. The chickens, too, can be fed here.

Cheap Winter Run-Figure 60 shows an easy way to make a sunny winter run for poultry at little expense, either of money, time or labor. Some old window sash is set up for the front, and the top is covered with straw

or corn stalks. Make the top strong enough to hold the weight of the snow that may fall upon it. If there is no tight board fence at hand, the back can be boarded roughly and then banked right up to and over the top with straw or other material.

Protected Scratching Sheds-The idea of an open scratching shed for poultry has come to stay. Continuous poultry houses, with shed roofs, are now built with two open scratching sheds side by side, then two pens, then two open sheds, and so on. A section showing two sheds, one each for the pens on either side, is

given in Figure 61. The special point brought out here is the cotton cloth screen, or door, that closes the front of each shed in stormy, very cold or blustering weather. They are hinged at the top and are turned up to the ceiling when the weather is suitable. Drifting snows are kept out by putting down the screens, while the outside air can come in and the light also. An open shed in a snowy latitude without such a protection is almost useless during the greater part of the winter, unless one keeps shoveling snow.

CHAPTER VIII

FOR INCUBATORS AND BROODERS

The buildings of a large establishment for artificial hatching and rearing should be arranged with especial reference to convenience. A few steps saved by a care

ful plan of building with due reference to location, becomes an important factor of success when applied to the numberless daily errands to and fro, Buildings to

be often visited, the incubator room, for instance, should be near the dwelling. All the buildings should be so arranged that the attendant can do the routine work by a systematic plan, with no waste of time or effort. The illustration (Figure 62) shows the actual arrangement of a large plant to which allusion is made in Bulletin 64 of the United States Department of Agriculture. Its convenience and compactness are seen at a glance.

Improved Incubator House-Figure 63 shows a plan for obviating the inconvenience of rising temperature in the incubator house when the sun is shin

FIG 63: DOUBLE ROOF INCUBATOR HOUSE

ing, especially late in the spring or in the summer. Then it is difficult to keep a uniform heat in the machines, as the house becomes overheated from the effect of the sun upon the roof. A simple way out of the difficulty is to put on an additional roof, leaving an air space between the two. The inner roof can be covered with cheap boards and roofing paper, with lath battens. The outer may have shingles over a layer of building paper.

Banked Incubator Room-In Figure 64 is shown an incubator room that is built on the surface of the