Where only a few geese and ducks are kept, one house will be sufficient for them, provided it be divided into three parts; one for the common lodging-place, one for laying and sitting, and the other for fattening. No other furniture or fittings-up are requisite than boxes for the laying and sitting house; those for the ducks may be 18 in. wide, and 2 ft. long; and those of the geese proportionately larger. It may be here observed, that, in order to keep ducks and geese, it is not necessary to have either large deep ponds, or running water- A basin of a few yards in diameter, and deep enough to admit of their swimming in it, will be found quite sufficient, provision being made for a frequent supply of fresh water. Where geese are kept in any quantity they require a yard by themselves, and an extensive range of pasturage, as they are fond of grass, and it appears essential to diem; and as, when confined with other fowls, they become very pugnacious and very much harass hens and turkeys.

447. Fowls may be kept on a small scale, so as to supply the family with eggs, by purchasing hens in a laying state, and furnishing them with a portable wooden house, containing a sufficient number of nests; placing this in a warm situation, as in a stable or cow-house, or adjoining a kitchen or other room having constantly a fire in it; and contriving free ingress and egress from the public road, or from some extensive space, in which the fowls can run about and find vegetables and insects. Besides this house for laying in, there would require to be another adjoining it, and of the same size, with perches for the fowls to roost on: a wooden house 6 or 8 feet high, and about the same length and breadth, would be sufficient for roosting ten or twelve full-grown fowls, and one of half that size would be sufficient for containing nests for them. A very common mode in which small fowl-houses of this description might be heated is by a pipe of hot water, communicating with the cistern at the back of the kitchen fire; and many other methods might be suggested.

In short, if the reader will bear in mind, that the common fowl, in order to lay abundance of wholesome eggs, requires abundance of farinaceous food; an extensive range of surface for exercise, and for picking up green meat, insects, worms, and other animal food, and the small stones and gravel necessary for digestion; and that when the fowl is not in active exercise, it should be in a temperature of between 50° and 60°, he will be at no loss for contrivances not only to keep fowls, but to insure an abundant supply of eggs during the winter season. Fowls should also always have access to mortar, lime-rubbish, or chalk; as if they have not, they will lay eggs without shells.