. WATER DISH A^D TANK. Every poultry-house should be provided with a sufficient quantity of small sand ; or, if such cannot be procured, clean ashes are a good substitute ; pieces of chalk are also a useful, nay, necessary adjunct; crude lime acts, however, as a poison. Some horse-dung or chaff, with a little corn through it, is also a source of much amusement to the birds; and it should be borne in mind that amusement^ even in the poultry-yard, is materially conducive to health. The ashes and litter should be frequently changed, and had better also be kept in little trenches^ in order that th
. WATER DISH A^D TANK. Every poultry-house should be provided with a sufficient quantity of small sand ; or, if such cannot be procured, clean ashes are a good substitute ; pieces of chalk are also a useful, nay, necessary adjunct; crude lime acts, however, as a poison. Some horse-dung or chaff, with a little corn through it, is also a source of much amusement to the birds; and it should be borne in mind that amusement^ even in the poultry-yard, is materially conducive to health. The ashes and litter should be frequently changed, and had better also be kept in little trenches^ in order that they may not be scattered about, giving a dirty or untidy appearance to the yard. When, however, your fowl have a run in a garden or field, of average extent, this artificial care will be replaced by nature. If the court be not supplied with a little grass-plot, a few squares of fresh grass sods should be placed in it, and changed every three or four days. If the court be too open, some bushes or shrubs will be found useful in afford- ing shelter from the too perpendicular beams of the noon-day sun, and probably in occasionally screening the chicken from the rapacious glance of the kite or raven. If access to the sleeping-room be, as it ought, denied during the day, the fowl should have some shed or other covering, beneath which they can run in case of rain : this is w^hat is termed " a storm hmsc ;^^ and, lastly, there should be a constant supply of pure^ fresh ivater. Fowl frequently suffer much annoyance from the presence of vermin, and a hen will often quit her nest, when sitting, in order to get rid of them. This is one of the uses of the sand or dust bath; but a better remedy, and
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