512 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



buttermilk to even the whole or skim milk. Some poultrymen pre- 

 fer a dry mash during this period. This may be fed in shallow 

 troughs, the feed being covered with a half-inch wire mesh to pre- 

 vent wasting. In general it is best to keep the chicks slightly 

 hungry and busy scratching during the day, with more liberal feed- 

 ing in the afternoon so as to insure a full crop at night. After the 

 first week, green food such as cabbage, lettuce, etc., chopped fine 

 should be fed. Care must be exercised in feeding grass to use that 

 which is tender, for often the crop of a chicken will become com- 

 pacted with dry material. After ten days the mash should con- 

 tain bran, middlings, corn meal, grit and small amounts of charcoal, 

 beef scraps and bone meal. By mixing this with milk, the chicks 

 can be induced to eat greater amounts. The University keeps the 

 dry mash before the chicks and feeds the mash moistened daily, 

 about four in the afternoon. The wet mash should be thoroughly 

 cleaned up at each feed, for it quickly sours, and a mash soured by 

 fermentation will cause digestive disorders. At the end of four 

 weeks the chick foods should be replaced by coarser grains such as 

 wheat, cracked corn, kaffir corn, etc. 



Dry mashes which are fed may vary in the materials used. 

 The following may prove suggestive: 



Wheat bran, 2. 



Corn meal, 4. 



Middlings, 2. 



Beef scrap, 2. 

 Another ration suggested by the Ontario experiment station is : 



Blood meal, 5. 



Charcoal, 3. 



Buckwheat meal, 20. 



Corn meal, 20. 



Oatmeal, 20. 



Middlings, 20. 



Bone meal, 5. 

 The beef scrap should be sifted very fine, and all should be 

 free from molds. Corn meal is quite often moldy and is frequently 

 the cause of trouble. Changes in the rations should be made 

 gradually. In general, sour milk is preferred to sweet because of 

 the danger of the milk being sour. Sour milk fed to birds ac- 

 customed to sweet, will set up diarrhea. By the use of sour milk 

 the chances of making the change are eliminated. 



Attention to details insures successful brooding. Tacks, bits 

 of tin and even small nails are readily picked up by the chicks. 



