506 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



eaten in all 137.7 pounds of corn, 39. 9 pounds of bran, 128 pounds of 

 skim milk, and 88 pounds of lettuce. At the prices already given the 

 total cost of the gain from July 11th, was $1.27, or three and one-half 

 cents per pound. The chickens were worth in the market nine and one 

 half cents per pound. The sixty-five and a half pounds brought, there- 

 fore, $6.22. 



FEEDING LAYING HENS. 



Three pens of laying hens were fed in the adjacent divisions of the 

 hen house described on page 331 to indicate the differences to be expected 

 in the number of eggs produced by fair sized flocks of hens identical 

 in age, breeding and feeding. Each pen contained four Minorcas, 

 four White Plymouth Rocks, nine Barred Plymouth Rocks, five Light 

 Brahmas, all full bloods, and eight grade Plymouth Rocks and five 

 cross bred Buff Wyandotte-Light Brahmas. As these fowls had been 

 hatched at the College it was possible to match the pens evenly as to age 

 and relation to the laying period as well as to the breeding of the fowls. 



The hens were kept in the hen house nights and during stormy days. 

 The hens in each pen were allowed the run of a large lot twenty-three 

 rods long by three rods wide. 



The feeding of the pens was practically identical. They were given a 

 mixed diet containing as great a variety of foods as possible. The 

 grain ration was a mixture of corn, oats, bran, wheat and oilmeal. With 

 this ration was fed boiled potatoes, cut bone, and cabbage. Some 

 middlings were fed after the first of May. A light breakfast of corn 

 meal, ground oats and bran, wet with enough water to make a dry mush 

 and mixed with boiled potatoes and occasionally a little oil meal was 

 given at daylight. Some loose grain was then scattered in the bedding, 

 to induce the hens to exercise. A weighed head of cabbage was hung 

 from the ceiling or nailed to the side of the pen at such a heighth from 

 the floor as to compel the hens to exert themselves to reach it. In the 

 afternoon more grain was scattered as in the morning and the hens were 

 compelled to scratch for their supper. 



The experiment began January 1, 1896, and continued to July 1st. 

 During the month of January the pens were kept separate and were fed 

 alike. For that month the number of hens in each pen was but thirty. 

 On the first of February five hens were added to each pen making the 

 number in each breed as above stated. The next table gives the amount 

 of food consumed by each pen from the first of January to the first of 

 July: . 



Cornmeal 



Ground oats 



Bran 



Middlings 



Boiled potatoes. 



Oilmenl 



Ground bone 



Cabbage 



Wheat 



Oats 



Corn 



Pen 3. 



Lbs. 



191.6 

 81.3 



144.4 

 62.6 



194.0 



23.4 



73.5 



94.0 



297.0 



104.4 



196.0 



