EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 551 



Good judgment and careful attention are necessary to get good re- 

 sults from poultry during the winter season. To get best results, early 

 summer conditions should be duplicated as nearly as possible. At that 

 time the birds get plenty of exercise, fresh air, green food, meat (bugs, 

 worms, flies), grit and the grain that is fed them. During the winter 

 months, the exercise can be provided by mixing the grain in a deep litter 

 of clean straw and chaff; the green food by feeding cabbages, roots, 

 sprouted oats, clover and alfalfa. Grit, oyster shell, green food and 

 skim milk should be supplied. Both the dry mash and the scratch grain 

 should be used to get best success. 



The following rations are advocated for the Upper Peninsula by the 

 Poultry Department of the College. 



Scratch Feed. Di*y Mash. 



2 parts cracked corn 20 per cent corn meal 



1 part wheat 20 per cent ground oats 



1 part heavy oats 20 per cent bran 



I 20 per cent middlings 



• ^ 20 per cent beef scraps 



Cull the flock before starting winter feeding. Full instructions on 

 culling can be received through the County Agent or the Poultry De- 

 partment of the Michigan Agricultural College at East Lansing. Blue 

 prints for poultry houses that are especially adapted to the Upper 

 Peninsula can also be secured from the above sources. 



LIVESTOCK IMPROVEMENT. 



The agricultural future of the Upper Peninsula is going to depend 

 largely on the interest developed in the improvement of livestock. 

 Considerable progress is now being made along this line. Scrub stock 

 cannot compete successfully with the high grade of pure bred stock. 

 Improvement of livestock can be accomplished through better pure-bred 

 sires, co-operative bull associations, cow-testing associations, culling the 

 herds and flocks and by stimulating boys' and girls' club work in the 

 different communities. 



BULL ASSOCIATIONS. 



The sire is half the herd as far as the influence on the progeny is 

 concerned, consequently, improvement in the herd can be best accom- 

 plished by using better sires. 



Where a farmer has not a large enough herd to pay him to keep a 

 high-class pure bred bull, he should join with a few of his neighbors 

 and organize a bull association. In that way they can own a better sire 

 than anyone of them could afford to buy. 



Banish the scrub bull from the roadside. 



The scrub bull is a menace to livestock improvement in any commun- 

 ity, but doubly so in newly settled areas, where many cattle run at 

 large. There is a law on the statute books prohibiting owners from 

 letting bulls run loose on the roads, nevertheless it has but little effect 

 until public sentiment within the communities has been developed 

 sufficiently so that it is more popular for the officers to enforce the law 



