103 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Expenses. 



9 bushels corn, at $1.10, . . . . 89 90 

 2 bushels meal, at $1.10, . . . . 2 20 



812 10 



Leaving a net profit of, . . . . . $55 75 



Yalue of stock ; five at $1.00, . . $5 00 



fifteen at 75 cents, . . 11 25 



$16 25 



w 



Thus the net gain on the investment will be 843 per cent. ; 

 and the net profit per fowl $2.80 for the half year. 



The eggs are reckoned at the average store price, and the 

 chicks at market rates for dressed poultry. 



Mode of Feeding. 



The ordinary mode of feed has been, corn morning and 

 evening, and the scraps from the table at noon. Occasionally, 

 I mix up coarse meal and bran with sour milk, for all my stock. 

 They relish it, and it seems to quicken appetite. The brood 

 hen when confined in coop, should have grass or some green 

 vegetable food, twice a week. For winter feeding, I should 

 supply a greater variety, and some more animal food. Lime 

 and sand mixed, and when dry, broken up, is kept by them all 

 the time ; and pounded crockery is freely given twice a week. 

 As my fowls have the range of the barn and yards, they need no 

 other vegetable food, and during the warm season they get all 

 the animal food necessary. This saves materially in the cost of 

 keeping. Young chicks I feed on cracked corn, slightly wet 

 with water, with warm boiled potatoes for a change. They 

 will, however, take whole grain quite early. 



Experiments in Fattening. 

 Feeding as I do, fowls are kept sufficiently fat for health and 

 laying, and if wanted for the table or market, can be easily 

 fattened. I shut up some old hens in a coop out of doors, and 

 fed on whole corn alone, giving them all they would eat three 

 times a day, with fresh water every day, and in ten days they 

 were fat as butter. But I had doubts about the result with 

 young chicks. To settle the matter, in August I put four 

 roosters only three months old in a small coop with latticed 



