The Pulaskian., 1918-10-04

extensively for two-story buildings, for brooder houses, and for incubator eel lars. This style of roof is usually ceiled at or slightly above the caves, or the gable may be filled with straw or some kind of absorbent material, which tends to keep such houses dry and warm. The A-shaped roof is uset; for growing coops and colony houses which, with q wall 18 inches high, pro- vides a large amount of floor space with a minimum amount of lumber, but increases the roof surface, which is the most expensive part of the house.
 A large amount of glass in the front of the house makes 1t warm during the day and cold at night, as glass radiates heat very rapidly. Unbleach- ed muslin, or light weight or duck cloth, is used for curtains in the front of poultry houses. This cloth should be thin enough to allow a slow cir culation of air without a draft, which object is defeated by using too heavy grade of duck or by oiling or painting the cloth. The front of tho house should be high enough so that the win dows or openings will allow the sun to shine we'll back during the winter.
 Good Floor Important.
 The best kind of floor depends upon the soil and the use of the house. On light, sandy, well-drained soils a dirt floor is satisfactory, especially for small or colony henhouses. Such floors should be from two to six inches higher than the outside ground sur face, and it is advisable to renew them each year by removing the contam- mated surface down to clean soil, and to refill with fresh sand or fine gravel and earth. A board floor is generally used where the level of the floor in the house is from one to three feet above the ground surface and in port able houses on land which is not we'll drained. Board floors harbor rats and rot quickly, and should be raised some distance off the ground so that cats or dogs can get under them, which also allows free circulation of air to prevent the wood from rotting. Ce- ment floors are adapted to long per manent buildings, brooder houses, in- cubator cellars, and to all permanent houses where an artificial floor is re- quired and can be built on the ground level. These floors are easy to clean, very sanitary, rat proof, and compara- lively inexpensive, if one has g sup ply of gravel or sharp sand.
 The interior fixtures of the pens should be simple, portable and mex pensive. Roosts are usually placed next to the end or back walls, six to ten inches above the dropping boards, while the latter are from two to twc and one-half feet above the ground They should all be go the same level. otherwise the birds will crowd and fight to get on the highest roost. Scant- ling two by three inches or two by four inches, with the upper edges rounded off, makes good roosts with either the wide or narrow surface up. Allow seven to ten inches of ro0st space per fowl, according to the size of the bird. Roosts should be placed about 15 inches apart, but the out side ones may be within ten inches of the edge of the dropping boards.
 Nests may be placed under the drop ping boards, on the partition walls, or in any convenient place where they do not take up floor space, and should be arranged so that the birds can get into them easily. They should be 12 to IA inches square and 12 to 16 inches high, with strip about four inches high on the open side to retain the nesting material. Provide one nest for every four or five hens. Trap nests are essential in any careful breeding work, such as pedigree breeding, or the breeding of exhibition poultry.