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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, MABCII 1, 1882. 7 m iMtlMi I*OUI.TRY HOTSE-S. It is n fact that though n poultry keeper may sec plan after plan of a poultry house, and perhaps admire thesame, still, when he builds a fowl house of his own, he generally follows liis own ideas us to what lie needs. If lie only does this, letting no old, accepted notions of what should be done, prevent him from doing what his own common sense tells him is necessary, he will usually succeed in putting up a polutry house of the right sort for ids flock of fowls. We copy the follow ing suggestions from the l’et Stock, Pigeon and Poultry Bulletin, a most admirable Monthly devoted specially to the Poultry in terest, published at G2 Courtland St., New York city, to the editor of which the Soutiikun Wobld isgreat- ly indebted for the use of the accom panying illustrations: “In building a poultry house there should be taken Into consid eration, first, tbe climate. It w.ould be folly to put up a light, airy, cool house in Canada, where warmth in winter must be had, or to erect a frost proof building where frost never comes. “Second, the size of the flock should never exceed the accommo dations of the house, and the lat ter should be, in all respects, as near what the fancier really needs ns circumstances will admit. Among our illustrations of poul try houses this month will be found designs suited to various tastes and requirements. Figure one shows an octagon poultry house, a neat nml pretty building for fine birds. The diameter of such a one would be twenty-four feet, height at eaves five teet, nine inches; from rise of roof to base of cupoln, three feet; height of cupola to its eaves, two feel; rise of cupola roof, two nml a half feet, making en tire height of building, from floor of peak, thirteen and u half feet. “The sides arc of worked pine boards, bat tened; ventilators nre put in the cupola in the shape of blinds that may be opened or shut ns desired. The house contains seven apartments or pens, besides the main passage way, and room in the centre reached by the main door, and the interior arrangements may bo built to suit the fancy of the proprie tor. “Figure 2 shows a larger house on a more extensive plan. It is adopted to the needs of large poultry raisers, and serves os amain building to which additions may be made at pleasure. It is twenty feet wide and sixty-eight feet long; centre portion twenty feet square and two stories high; wings each twenty-four feet long by twenty feet wide. A passage way fourfeet wide runs the entire length of the house, and on each side are the pens for the fowls. An ollice limy be laid out in the main building, which contains four square rooms, leaving three for ‘sitters,’ grain room, and room for storage. The a- partments up stairs may be put to various uses, and the whole building affords ample room for 200 laying hens. “Figures 3 and 4 show us a warm, cozy winter poultry house for cold latitudes, where combs freeze and “blizzards" make frequent visits, The sketches sliow us a house which lias all the warmth of a cellar without the latter’s dampness. The walls, five feet high from floor to frame of roof, are of rough hewn stone, set in mortar; the north anil cast walls nre banked up with of your own flock of fowls in building a poultry house to shelter them from the cold of winter and heat of Burning"’ Curiosities of the Telegraph. The humming noise produced by the vi bration of telegraph wires in the wind often deceives the animals, and cause them to at tack the poles from which the wires are sus pended. In the Norwegian section of the Paris Electrical Exhibition, says Cauell’t Magazine, there was an interesting speci men of the depredations sometimes made bynnimals on telegraph lines. A stout tel egraph pole of pine wood is shown, having Trees anil Italn. The countries of Sardinia and Sicily, once tho granaries of Italy, have suffered the penalty of their thoughtlessness in exter- milisting their forests. Two thousand years ago these lands were celebrated for their wonderful productivenes, and were said to be the most beautiful in the world. In 1800 Humbolt visited Venezuela, and was in formed by the natives living in Araguay that they had noticed, with great astonish ment, that a lake which lay in the middle of the valley, had decreased in volume every year; the cause clearly traced to the falling of a great number of trees which Fig. 1. a hole bored through and through it, large enough to admit the list of a man. This was pecked out by the black and green wood peckers of Norway. These birds will some times peck through a thick pole in a single night, anil the explanation of their attack is that they are deluded by the humming of the pole, caused by the vibration of the wire, in the belief that insects are lurking in the interior. In the same way, the Nor wegian bear is found to attack the poles, ap grew on the surrounding mountains. In Hungary periodical droughts are universally attributed to the annihilation of the forests. In Cairo, Lower Egypt, a great many years ago, rain fell but seldom—only once in three or four years—but since the time of Moham med Ali, thirty or more millions of trees have been set or planted, and the result is now that the country has from thirty to forty rainy days in every year. When New England and the heavily timbered States of parently under the impression that a swarm of bees have made their honeyed nest with in. This explanation is ull the more credi ble when we recall the experiments made by Mr. Boys on spiders with a tuning-fork. Mr. Boys found that the spiders mistook the sounding-fork for the buzzing of flies and other insects on which they prey. Still an other instance of the witchery of the tele graph exists in Norway, since in the moun tain districts there it has driven away the tlie Union were first settled, the rain-fall was greatly in excess of what it is since so much of the land has been cleared up. Interesting to Oyster Eaters. A matter of importance to oyster eaters has been disclosed by Mr. C. A. Cameron. He lately examined some oysters taken from the beds on the northern shore of the Bay of Dublin, where the water is very much polluted at present with excremen- ent in sewage. Water taken from the bay at low tide was found to be highly charged with sewage. It is not unfairly considered, therefore, that the illness which so many persons have experienced after eating oys ters believed to have been stale, was really due to the sewage in the juice of these shellfish. ^ A well has been discovered in Minnesota which is a sort of natural ice-cooler even in the hot mid-summer months. The shaft is about twenty feet deep, and is not n very great distance from other wells,'the waters of which are of the ordinary temperature. The people in the neighborhood of Browns ville, where the ice well is situ ated, liavo u theory that there is a large cave connected with it, and some time ago excavated a shaft near it for the purp osc of ascer taining if such was the case, but no evidence of a cave was discovered. After reaching the depth of one hundred feet without result, drift ing was abandoned. Before the shaft was made it is claimed that the well filled with ice to within six feet of tlie top. A thermom eter marked 30degrcss Fahrenheit. About six feet back from the mouth of the tunnel, the floor and sides nre in many places covered with ice. A strong current of air con stantly flows from the excavation that is very perceptible one hun dred feet distant. Even when the thermometer at the surfaee is 95 degrees, the atmosphere at the bot tom of tho well is below the freez ing point. This is, however, not the only instance of the perpetual formation of ice below the surface of the earth with the ther mometer among the nineties above. Near Wilkes barre, Pa., there is a small cave in the mountains into which water trickles from a stream above, and icicles are formed along the ledges of the rocks below, even in tlie dog days. The Inventor of the Wheelbarrow. It takes a great man to do a little thing sometimes. Who do you think invented that very simple thing called a wheelbarrow ? Why, no less a man than Leonardo da Vinci. And who was he? He was a musician, poet, painter, archi tect, sculptor, physiologist, engineer, natural historian, botanist, and inventor, all in one. He wasn’t a “jack at all trades and master of none," either. He was a real master of many arts, and a practical worker, besides. When did he live? Somewhere about the time that Columbus discovered America. And where was he born ? In the beautiful city of Florence, in Italy. "Perhaps some of you may feel a little bet ter acquainted with him when I tell you that it was Leonardo da Vinci who painted one of the grandest pictures in tho world— “The Last Supper"—a picture that has been copied many times, and engraved in several styles, so that almost every one has an idea of the arrangement and position at the table of the figures of our Lord and his disciples; though I am told that without seeing tbe painting itself no one can form a notion of how grand and beautiful it is. And only to think of the thousands of poor, hard-working Americans who really. wolves, either because of the humming noise made by the poles, or the ensnaringappear- ance of the wires, for it is well known that wolves are scared by strings suspended on poles. The minute, the hour, the day, the week, the month, the year, all come to an end at once os we pass from the old to the new year. It suggests to us very strangely the lesson of passing time, and teaches us to pray that we may be able to number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom. earth to tlie caves, and the south and east have lnrge windows in them, for tho early sun in winter must be caught and made the most of while it shines. Ventilators are swung on hingesut each end of the building, and may be thrown open at will or closed tight. The projecting roof guards against storms beating in through the ventilators, and such a house is not only warm in winter but cool in summer. “As we said in tlie outset of this article, always consider not other people’s wants in other localities, but look to the requirements titious and other offensive substances. The oysters whlchjMr. Cameron tested were taken from a place where the tide covered them to a height of ten feet, and which was nearly dry at low water; From the brine of most of the oysters no offensive odor was emitted but that of a large proportion gave forth a distinctly fetid smell, and in a few cases the brine gave unmistakable evidence to ( the nostrils of sewage contamination. The microscope revealed in the fetid liquor of the oysters whole swarms of micrococci and other low organisms like those usually pres own, in their wheelbarrow, an original “ work " of Leonardo da Vinci!—[8t. Nicho las. Tns largest and clearest print can never assist our sight as long as a covering remains before our eyes. The best commentary can not enlighten the mind until the veil is taken away from the heart O how needful then is the prayer, Unveil—open thou mine eyes, that I may behold the wondrous things that are In thy law: 'Let the veil be taken away from the law that I may understand it, and from my heart that I may sec it"