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food. The clear maize diet was accompanied by such ill effects, 

 that the chickens of each lot, after the first period, were given daily 

 each one-fourth ounce of wheat, and the hens each one ounce. 

 The wheat was increased during the fourth and fifth periods in the 

 case of the chickens to one ounce each. During the second period, 

 one of the chickens fed nitrogenous food, and during the third pe- 

 riod another of the same lot were taken ill and removed from the 

 experiment. Both seemed to be suffering from impacted crops, 

 as the stomach and gizzard in each case were found to be empty. 



The fact that the sick chickens disliked the nitrogenous ration, 

 and that since the first period the amount of food eaten by the 

 hens and chickens of Lot I had continually decreased, led to the 

 belief that their food might be too nitrogenous, and as during the 

 last days of the third period one of the hens in Lot I was also ill, 

 it was decided to discontinue the use of cotton seed meal and to 

 use linseed meal instead. The hen recovered soon after the 

 change in food. 



The supply of skim milk running short in the last two periods, 

 water was used instead in mixing the ration of the lots fed nitro- 

 genous food. 



At the beginning of the fifth period one-half of the linseed meal 

 in the ration of Lot I was removed, and cotton seed meal substi- 

 tuted. This combination seemed a happy one, for on this ration 

 both hens and chickens made large gains. 



At the end of the experiment little difference could be seen in 

 the hens of the two groups ; but the two lots of chickens were in 

 striking contrast. While the chickens fed on nitrogenous food 

 were large, plump, healthy, active, and well feathered, the 

 chickens fed on a carbonaceous ration were in general much 

 smaller, sickly, and in several cases almost destitute of feathers. 

 Two of them had perfectly bare backs and so ravenous were they 

 for flesh and blood that they began eating one another. 



The inability of the chickens fed on a carbonaceous diet to 

 throw out new feathers and the ability of the chickens fed on a 

 nitrogenous diet to grow an enormous coat of feathers, is a splen- 

 did illustration of the effect of the composition of the food in sup- 

 plying certain requirements of animal growth. It was plain to 

 see that maize, even when assisted by a small amount of wheat 

 and green clover, could not supply sufficient nitrogen for the 

 growth of feathers. 



