1 62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Mr. Delano. I would give them milk in fountains. 

 There is nothing better than milk. 



Question. But you don't mix it in their feed? 



Mr. Delano. We mix it in this cake which we bake, we 

 mix that with milk instead of water. 



Question. Do you consider it necessary to study the dif- 

 ferent feeds — the use of protein or anything of that nature, 

 as we do in cattle? 



Mr. Delano. Yes ; it is a very good point. I think prob- 

 ably protein will be used more than clover as a basis to work 

 mashed food on. In making a mash food we always use some 

 clover hay because it contains a high percentage of protein, and 

 I think makes a better food. 



Question. How about wheat screenings ? 



Mr. Delano. We never use them at all. We buy the best 

 wheat we can get. 



Question. Do you prefer wheat to barley ? 



Mr. Delano. I feed them both, I like to give the hens all 

 the variety I can. We use five or six kinds of hard grain all 

 the while, only we feed them one at a time. 



Question. Won't a hen as a rule prefer barley to wheat? 



Mr. Delano. I think my hens like wheat better than any 

 other grain, better than corn, but I think flocks of hens differ 

 in that respect. I think they care as little for oats as anything, 

 but if they are fed oats alone they have got to eat them. 



The President. When we came to our oat harvest and 

 carried our oats into the barn, the chickens came and picked 

 them up, and we noticed that when hens hadn't been laying at 

 all they would begin to lay and keep it up as long as the oats 

 lasted which had been dropped around. 



Mr. Delano. Probably the main feed before that time had 

 been corn and the oats acted as a tonic. 



Question. How about wheat screenings? 



Mr. Delano. Wheat screenings are always full of elevator 

 dust, and elevator dust will get into the throats of the chickens 

 and irritate them and cause canker and various other things. 



