136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



clover, scalded to soften it, fed in deep troughs. We have 

 used with excellent success a dry mash, consisting of twenty- 

 five per cent, corn meal, twenty-five per cent, beef scraps and 

 fifty per cent, bran, fed dry in boxes during the morning, giv- 

 ing what they will eat up by noon, when we give a light feed 

 of whole grain, with a full feed at night. Hard grain is thrown 

 in litter, as previously noted, and while this ration is a little 

 cheaper than the other, because the dealers put the poorer 

 grades of corn into their meal, the results are not always so 

 satisfactory as we could wish, and for that reason. A good 

 egg-yield will result from this ration if the ground grain and 

 beef scraps are of good quality. We have no difficulty in get- 

 ting birds to one or two pounds above standard weight by this 

 method, and we want to say that we believe that ninety per 

 cent, of the chickens raised in this country do not have sufficient 

 quantity of the right quality of food ; what is called over-feed- 

 ing we believe would be more correctly expressed as improper 

 feeding ! 



" There are very few breeds that would get too fat to lay 

 if properly exercised, and we have yet to find one of our birds 

 in this condition. 



" As to fertility, and the strength of the germs, we believe 

 no system of feeding can equal this method. The eggs uni- 

 formly test well, and the germs live through and hatch good, 

 strong, bound-to-live chicks that are ready to take up the dry- 

 feeding method as their ancestors did. No weaklings result,' 

 provided the other conditions surrounding the birds are right 

 — one of the most important of which is an abundance of fresh 

 air, and our fowls will stand an almost unlimited amount of 

 this if the houses are free from draughts and they are not sub- 

 jected to the daily sweating over a hot mash. Each generation 

 of these youngsters seems hardier than their ancestors, are 

 more cheaply raised, for any uplifting of the general health 

 of the flock must be reflected in the decreased mortality of the 

 youngsters. 



" The labor saved is no small item, for the difference be- 

 tween feeding the chicks three times a day with grain, plus 

 the cooked Johnny-cake, or heating the water and stirring up 

 the mash for a large flock of hens — and having the food al- 

 ways accessible to the chicks in summer, and the dry mash with 

 throwing the dry grain in litter in winter, amounts to a saving 



