Besides the hen-house, there should be an open shed on each side of the poultry-yard, extending 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 pea-fowl and guinea-fowl; but the one which has the flag-stones 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. [Illustration: Fig. 15. _Sitting-box._]