y2. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



the experimental pens. They received the same ration, one 

 lot getting grain with no litter on the floor, and we found in 

 two years out of the three that the Plymouth Rocks gave us 

 a little better result for having grain in the scratching material, 

 while the Leghorns did far better by having it in a box and not 

 being compelled to scratch for their food. That is something 

 which can be substantiated if you look at Bulletin No. 68 

 I think, of the Utah station. They concluded from that that 

 the Leghorns did not need to have their grain ration in litter 

 and that for the other birds it was desirable. 



We have been carrying on some experiments in Rhode 

 Island with respect to raising chickens. In that State a great 

 majority of them can hatch eggs, but there are fewer of them 

 who can raise a large percentage of their chickens. They lay 

 this to a variety of causes. Some of them say it is not proper 

 to give the chickens mash food, and a number of other things. 

 Now I would like to tell you about an experiment which we 

 have running at the Rhode Island station, in which we are feed- 

 ing some pens with wet mash. Their food is all ground in the 

 form of wet mash. They are not getting a single other thing. 

 We are not running that to show anybody that that is the best 

 way of feeding chickens, but it is just an interesting fact rele- 

 vant to the experiment in demonstrating that we can raise 

 chickens without going through a whole lot of extra labor as 

 advocated by a good many of our authorities. We are feeding 

 this way because we have got to regulate the amount of food 

 in order to get the results we are after. We have two pens 

 there with food of a good practical nature that have lost but 

 one chick out of thirty-four in ten weeks, and one lot that 

 averaged a pound weight when they were eight weeks old. 

 That is not extraordinary. Lots of you can do as well. Lots 

 of you can do just as well as that, and some of you better, but 

 it shows that you do not have to feed all dry grain if you do not 

 want to, and that you can raise chickens under a variety of 

 conditions. 



Another experiment was one that we carried on a year ago 



