140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



" We cannot give the results of a full year's feeding in this 

 way, as we have practiced it only from the first of last Novem- 

 ber to the close of June. The number of hens lost during the 

 winter has been less than ever before, even when they were 

 kept in the same style of houses. We can ascribe this to no 

 other cause than that the birds did not overload with food at 

 any time. We have never had so many eggs laid during the 

 winter months by a like number of hens, but that may be due 

 to better breeding, or to the open-front houses which the 

 birds occupied. 



" During the months they were not laying heavily, the con- 

 sumption of mash was but about four pounds and the demands 

 for shell, bone, and grit were less. It will be noticed that the 

 proportion of wheat fed was less than in any former ration we 

 have fed and that the cracked corn was increased, thus cheap- 

 ening the ration. 



" The average yield of the 550 hens during March was 

 20.4 eggs per bird. The whole number of eggs laid by them 

 during the six months from November ist to April 30 was 

 42,126, an average of 76 per bird. It must be borne in mind 

 that these birds were not selected but were the whole number 

 of chickens reared last year." 



The most radical of all methods of dry-feeding is that fol- 

 lowed by Mr. Tillinghast, of Vernon, Conn., and he, literally, 

 feeds his birds but once a week and waters them not at all ! 

 As to the watering, the birds go to near-by springs or a tiny 

 brook to drink, and when the springs and brook are frozen 

 and there is snow on the ground they eat snow for their drink. 



The remarkable thing about Mr. Tillinghast's feeding 

 method is the very few grains he feeds ; the ration is almost 

 wholly wheat screenings and beef scraps, and they are kept 

 in hoppers, one of each in each house, and are accessible to the 

 ■ birds all the time. The hoppers for the wheat screenings are 

 made from good sized boxes, shoe boxes chiefly, and will hold 

 a bushel or more each, a supply amply sufficient for a week 

 for the fifty or sixty birds in a house ; the hoppers for the beef 

 scraps are about eight inches square by a foot and a half high, 

 and will hold something more than a peck each. These two 

 hoppers of food are refilled once a week, and an ample sup- 

 ply is always at hand. 



