202 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



OCTOBEK 11, 1902. 



POULTRY. 



Jlr. J. Unitlay completes in this number hiss notes 

 on 'Feeding |i()ultn",' commenced on j). lH(i. The 



next contiibutii.m will deal with ' Housing poultiy' : — 



MIXED IiIET ESSENTIAL. 



We liave seen in the preceding article that coni is 

 not a suitable food to be u.-^ed alone, or even laigejy, 

 in warm climates, owing to the large amount of fat it 

 contains, over and above being rich in starch (also fat- 

 tening) and in proportion, being poor in the Hesh-forniing 

 element which goes to build up tlie body and be utilized in 

 making the egg.s. Cocoa-nut is also fatty but has no 

 .starch, and it must be used sparingly for lajing fowls. 

 Cocoa-nut is largely u.sed in i>arts of Jamaica for feeding 

 jioultry, just as corn is, and both are suitable, fed .sparingly, 

 where fowls can pick uj) a variety of other food. When 

 active fowls are kept on a free range, as they .should 

 be to be i>rofitable, all the native foods, though fatten- 

 ing, like tannias, bananas, rice, breadfruit, corn, cocoa-nut, 

 or whatever is handy, way be fed safely, because acti\'c 

 fowls use up in energy, a very great amount of what with 

 .sluggish fowls would make fat. They find in what they pick 

 up, a worm or grub here, a beetle there, and a grassho[ii)er 

 yoniler, the nitrogenous food to make a good balance. Hens 

 .so keiit have always clear, bright, sharp ej'es, a bus_v, always- 

 looking-out-for-something air, and if of laying strains at all, 

 will lay regularly and freely. The table birds, if so kept, 

 will keep healthy and the hens will lay well. If wanted to 

 be fattened, they should \>i' confined and fed well on the 

 .said foods, especially on cocoa-nuts and bananas, when the 

 want of exercise will (piickly cause them to turn their foo<l 

 into tiesh and fat, and their tiesh will lia\e an excellent 

 flavour. 



NITKO.iENOUS FOOD. 



The want of nitrogenous vegetable food for live stock is 

 often badly felt in the West Indies. In temperate climates 

 wheat bran, and middlings, and manufactured foods like 

 gluten meal, cotton-seed meal, blood meal, and so on are at 

 Land. We have the cocoa-nut and cocoa-iuit meal, but these 

 are not generally available; in many i)laces not at all, and not 

 at any rate, cheap enough. Nitrogenous food is most easily 

 available for us in the legumes like peas. But the.se are 

 generally twice or three times as dear as corn, if giown or 

 bought in the markets. Cheapness, however, may often be 

 found in making a douMe or triple purpose be served. If there 

 is a waste piece of ground, a rocky hill, an exceedingly poor 

 l)iccc of land, a field to be rested and enriched, then a crop 

 of peas should be grown. The most useful of all for our 

 tri|)le purpo.sc, the most prolific and easily grown, is the 

 Pigeon or Congo pea, which grows into a bush, bearing the 

 pods pretty nmch out of the reach of the fowls ; and it .shades 

 the land. 1'hey are .soil imi)rovers and kecj) down weeds 

 when planted thickly ; the peas ar'j excellent food for man 

 and beast and bird ; they grow on the poorest .soils, and 

 stand very dry weather. If the bu.sh is ke|>t down until 

 the young plants are 4 feet high, they will then co\er the 

 groiuid antl keep weeds under. Encourage the fowls to go to 



the pigeon [lea cultivation, which may be done by feeding 

 them there in the morning ; they will sjiend bu.'^y and 

 s;itisfactory, hours getting at the lower pods, and nothing that 

 falls will be wasted. The topmost jiods will be saved and 

 u.sed in the hou.se or stored for iionltry feed, or both. When 

 the crop is taken oti", the pigeon pea bears a second time, 

 sometimes a third time without replanting, but bj' the 

 .second year the soil is much imiiroved by the iiea-roots and 

 the droppings of the fowls, and is ready to be planted in .some 

 other crop. Peas cost more than corn if bought in the 

 niarket.s, but when we consider that peas contain exactly 

 a fourth less fat than corn, — fat which we do not want and 

 vhi<h is therefore wasted to us, — and that one-fourth of 

 their whole weight is Hesh-forming food, which we value 

 most highly, while corn contains only one-fourth as much, 

 we find that one half-pint of ))eas will give as much 

 fiesh-fiiiining food as a quart of corn. Furthermore, as we 

 have seen that neaily all our other foods are starchy, it is- 

 l)Os.sil.)le by feedii\g a .small laoportion of i)eas every day 

 with any other common foods, with what the fowls pick up, 

 to get a well balanced and economical diet for our poultry-. 



AN KCONOMICAL METHOD. 



^^'hat we advise to do is as follows. There is to 

 be found in mo.st kitchens an old kerosene tin where 

 yam-peelings and scrajis gener.illy are thrown, intended for 

 the pigs. This is well, but in addition, a tin, or box should 

 be fixed upon the wall, out of reach of dogs and fowls, should 

 they happen to be allowed to hang around the kitchen (a bad 

 custom), where the best scrajKS, such as bits of boiled yam, 

 potato, breadfruit, crusts of bread, or in fact anything left 

 over from the cooking or from the taljle, should be thrown. 

 In the morning these scra))s should be put into a dish (the 

 earthenware ' yabba' of .Jannica makes an excellent and 

 easily-cleaned vessel,) a handfid of rice, bran, corinneal, 

 finely ground i)cas, or eoeoa-nut ni^al put in, and just enough 

 boiling water poured on as to make a thick, crumblj' mess, 

 not sloppy nor stick}'. This should be fed to the fowls 

 early in the mornings in dishes or on boards, not thrown on 

 the ground, and should not be ferl at the kitchen door or in 

 the yard, Imt well away and on different spots each daj\ 

 The value of this will ap[ii'ai- later on under ' Sickness'. 

 With a free run of pasture, c;j.fji walk, binain walk, or 

 suih like, half a handful or, say an ounce or a little more of 

 the .soft fool is enough for eu-h fowl, (de]iending upon 

 their run) and they will need nothing more until evening. 

 If fed too heartily in the morning the fowls will not go in 

 search of more food but will hang around the yard or in the 

 shade. In the evening one pint of pigeon peas cracked or 

 broken as you would grind corn roughly in a mill, to a 

 (piart of corn, (Juinea corn, or rice, is sutticient food for from 

 twei.ty to twenty-tive active laying hens, that i.s, about an 

 ounce or a little more ea.h. 



KOOD SHOULD liE SCATTKltED. 



This hud food should be scattered far and wide, two 

 hours before they go to roost so that they will be kept bu.sy 

 picking it up. It is a mistake simply to throw down the 

 food in a heap for the fowls to gob1>le it up quickly. In 

 nature fowts never get a heap of food at cnce ; they scrape 

 here and there picking up little by little. Hence it is best 

 that they .shoukl have to take time to find their grain food. 

 'J"he rule generally laid down for feeding poultry, to produce 

 the l)est results, is to feed soft food in the morning and 

 hard food in the evening. The hens are hungry after a long 

 night's fast, and the aim is to give food easily a.ssimilated 

 so tliat they can get the good of it ipiickly, and go to the 

 nest to lay, feeling comfortable. At the .same time the food 

 given must not satisfy them long enough to keep them from 



