416 Missouri Agricultural Rejjort. 



"We feed our hens at night on whole corn, and for the morn- 

 ing feed, give them a mixed feed composed of wheat, kaffir corn 

 and cracked corn in parts of ten bushels of wheat, ten bushels of 

 kaffir corn and five hundred pounds of cracked corn, thoroughly 

 mixed. I feed about a quart of this mixed feed to every dozen 

 hens each morning. I feed it in straw or trash. I have a bone 

 cutter and purchase from the butcher shop, at one cent per pound, 

 fresh bones, which I put in the bone cutter and grind, and feed to 

 the chickens about twice each week. I usually purchase about 

 ten or fifteen pounds for seventy five or one hundred hens. We 

 start our little chicks on oat meal, feeding it dry, and by feeding 

 them on this dry oat meal until they are two or three weeks old 

 we prevent any bowel trouble among them. After they become 

 two or three weeks old we feed them baked corn bread, in which 

 some eggs have been stirred before baking, or we feed them meal 

 mixed with boiling water and when they are about three months old 

 we put the feeder out. Our feeder is one that I have made and 

 it did not cost much. I have a partition in it, and on one side I 

 put the whole corn, and in the other side I put the mixed feed of 

 wheat, kaffir corn and cracked corn; I put the feeder in some 

 convenient, shady place and keep fresh water, oyster shells and 

 grit close by. For grit I use finely crushed limestone rock and 

 coarse sand or gravel. In buying grain for feed, I buy the best, 

 believing it to be cheaper than musty or inferior grain." — E. M. 

 Grimes. 



YARDING AND HOUSING. 



The location of the poultry yards is first to be considered. 

 This should be somewhat higher than the surface of the land 

 surrounding it, and never in a hollow. Avoid flat, damp, sour 

 land if you would have your birds healthy. A piece of ground 

 upon which water stands long after a rain is not a fit place for 

 poultry. A porous soil, slightly sandy or gravelly, is preferable 

 to a clay soil, as it is more easily kept in a sanitary condition, yet 

 the soil should be good enough to support plant life. A southern 

 slope is to be preferred, just as it is best to have buildings front 

 south. 



There are two methods of housing — the colony plan and the 

 apartment house. Some advantages of the colony plan, consisting 

 of a large number of small houses, are, no expense for fencing, 

 less need for scrupulous care as to cleanliness, a wider range for 



