1906.] THE NEW POULTRY CULTURE. I27 



now and then), examination of the crop at any time will not 

 reveal that sour smell so frequently noticed in mash-fed hens. 



" When dry-fed, a chick or fowl will not gulp down a great 

 amount of the food at one time, and I fully believe that with 

 dry feed, moistened with saliva, it will not sour nearly so 

 quickly as if it is moistened with hot water or milk. If my 

 method of feeding will grow good, healthy Plymouth Rock 

 pullets to weigh seven and one-half to eight and one-half 

 pounds in seven to eight months, I believe that pullet is in bet- 

 ter shape to lay, and, if continued on dry food, will at two years 

 of age lay as many or more eggs than will a mash-fed chick 

 and hen ; and not only this, but the eggs will be larger and 

 more fertile, and when you come to sell the carcass it will have 

 both a better appearance and better weight. I know the eggs 

 I am getting now are better in size, color, and shell than any 

 I ever bought ; I mean thirty-five to fifty per cent, better in 

 quality, and this I attribute to my having adopted the dry- 

 feeding method. I am certain that dry food properly fed 

 means health, with no sour-crop and no bowel trouble. 



" When I began dry feeding I had never seen an article 

 upon the subject. I knew I could do better with hogs on dry 

 food, but had never studied why. I knew I had too 

 much to do, was too busy with the farm work, to grow 

 chickens with mashes. I planned my year's campaign before 

 a chick was hatched, that is, the best of grain and sweet milk 

 before the chicks all the time, beef scraps also and charcoal 

 accessible all the time, with clover-hay chaff for litter, 

 and good range. I have experimented with dry feed for chicks 

 for two years, the past year for all ages of poultry, with the 

 best of success." 



That tells us how a busy farmer out in Illinois worked out 

 a better method of feeding his flocks, better because it cut 

 down the work fully a half, and gave him better results, both 

 in growth of young chicks and in egg-production. He had 

 learned that he grew a better looking hog, and one that the 

 meat of was firmer and better, by feeding it on dry grains, and 

 he argued that if all dry grains were better for a hog the same 

 method of feeding would give better results with chicks and 

 hens. This farmer " put brains " into his work, and an emi- 

 nently satisfactory saving of labor combined with a bettering 

 of results, was his reward. 



