VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 75 



were in better company. We are now taking care of thoroughbreds. 



I will tell you how we are feeding now: We put straw on the floor, 

 about four inches thick, and in the morning we feed some peas, oats 

 and wheat. These are the best all-around foods for laying hens I know 

 of. We raise Canada peas and oats together; the Canada peas, you 

 know, are small, and they can eat them whole. The peas are rich in 

 protein and the oats have got the gimp in them. Oats will make a horse 

 trot, a hen cackle or a rooster crow. 



Then next we feed the mash. Take seventy-five pounds of wheat 

 bran, a hundred pounds of wheat middlings, one hundred pounds of 

 corn meal and twenty-five pounds of meat scrap or meat meal, and mix 

 them together. We cut up some alfalfa hay, 30 per cent, of the mixture, 

 put that into the cooker and pour some skimmed milk on it and bring 

 it to a boil, then stir in enough of above mixture to make the whole 

 crumbly, and feed just what they will eat up in about fifteen or twenty 

 minutes, in V-shaped troughs. You have got to use your own judgment 

 in feeding; after you have fed them a few times you can do it without the 

 least bit of waste. Then, in the evening, if the weather is cold, we feed 

 them corn, wheat or buckwheat, providing nice, clean, pure water to 

 drink constantly. In the wallowing box we put South Carolina rock for 

 them to wallow in. That is a lice exterminatior, as it contains phos- 

 phoric acid from 14 to 16 per cent., and no lice can live on a hen when 

 she gets into that wallowing box and takes her bath. 



You see, we are very particular in regard to the care; we study their 

 nature and make them comfortable and contented. The question has 

 been frequently asked in the institutes I have attended during the past 

 two years, especially, what is a good ration for a laying hen? Because 

 farmers are paying more attention to poultry than they used to. That 

 question answers itself, if you give it a thought. We will ask ourselves 

 this question — what is an egg composed of? Seventy-four per cent, of 

 the egg is water. Now, how necessary it is that a hen should have water 

 every hour of the day — nice, clean water. Because it is impossible for 

 a hen to lay many eggs without water. Now, when the housewife opens 

 an egg in a saucer and examines it, the egg is not so nice as she would 

 like to see it; the white of the egg is watery, the yolk is pale and she 

 thinks the hen is sick, but that is not so. When the white of the egg is 

 watery, it shows that we are not feeding a good, balanced ration. The 

 lack of protein in feeding causes it. Fourteen and a half per cent, of the 

 egg is protein. This is the white of the egg. Now, we must find a 

 ration rich in protein. That we can do by feeding plenty of clover and 

 wheat bran and wheat middlings. What is the result? The white of the 

 egg is thick and attractive. Ten and a half per cent, of the egg is fat; 

 that is the yellow. If the yellow is pale we can color it by feeding. If 

 you feed too much buckwheat the yellow of the egg will be pale. We 

 feed yellow corn and wheat, two glutens, and in that way we give a 

 beautiful hue to the color of the yellow. We also feed quite a good deal 

 of corn, to produce fat. 



