890 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



before going to the troughs where an abundance of food was in store." The average 

 number of eggs laid from November I to April 30 was 76 per bird. The dry feeding, 

 has been found economical as regards time and waste, but the author does not con- 

 sider the data extensive enough for final deductions. 



The desirability of replacing a mash with dry grain and beef scrap feed supplied 

 from separate troughs was tested with 1.400 young chickens. 



' ' The results were sat isfactory . The labor of feeding was far less than that required 

 by any other method we have followed. The birds did not hang around the troughs 

 and overeat, but helped themselves— a little at a time — and ranged off, hunting or 

 playing and coming back again when so inclined to the food supply at the troughs. 

 There was no rushing or crowding about the attendant as is usual at feeding time 

 where large numbers are kept together. While the birds liked the beef scrap they 

 did not overeat of it. The birds [both cockerels and pullets] did well under this 

 treatment," 



From June to October the chickens ate about a pound of beef scrap to 10 lbs. of 

 cracked corn and wheat. According to the author, "it would seem that we had not 

 been far wrong in our previous feeding, as the birds used just about the same relative 

 amounts of scrap to other food, when they had liberty to do so, that we had formerly 

 mixed in for them." 



No special difficulty, it is stated, is experienced in keeping the troughs clean, as 

 they are provided with roofs which project 2 in. on either side. The troughs used 

 at the station are 6 to 10 ft." long, with sides 5 in. high and slats above. The lath 

 slats are 2 in. apart, the total height of the trough being 16 in. 



The system of feeding chickens followed at the station is outlined. For 2 or 3 days 

 after hatching they are supplied with a mixture of infertile eggs (shells included) 

 boiled for half an hour, ground in a meat chopper, and mixed with about 6 times 

 their bulk of rolled oats. After about the third day a mixture of hard, finely broken 

 corn, wheat, millet, and pin-head oats is also fed, and when the chicks are about 3 

 weeks old the rolled oat and egg mixture is gradually replaced by a moist mash 

 made of a mixture of bran, corn meal, middlings or Red Dog flour, linseed meal, and 

 fine beef scrap 2: 2: 1: 1: 1, wet up with a little water. The hard broken grains, it is 

 stated, may be safely used all the time instead of the meal mixture, but the chicks 

 do not grow so fast as when the mash, which should be rather dry to prevent loose- 

 ness of the bowels, is fed. 



Poultry experiments, J. Drydex ( Utah Sta. Bui. 92, pp. 115-197, figs. 25). — 

 Chickens (pp. 115-175). — Photographic records and the egg yield of a number of 

 hens were kept to secure data which would show whether hens with long bodies and 

 wedge-like forms, small heads, etc., are the best layers. ' The author states that this 

 theory was not borne out by his experiments, some of the hens of a given type being 

 poor layers and others good layers. 



Records of the egg yield of hens showed wide variations in both the number and 

 size of the eggs, and the author believes that laying qualities can be transmitted and 

 that by proper selection a strain of fowls can be produced that will lay eggs of 

 uniform color. As an illustration of the influence of good breeding, the record of 5 

 White Wyandotte pullets is given which averaged 189 eggs per year, an increase of 

 27 per cent over the average egg yield of their dams. As regards the color of eggs, 

 great variation was noted with all breeds except Leghorns and Dorkings, which laid 

 eggs uniformly white in color. 



" In our tests it was very rare that we found 2 Wyandottes or 2 Plymouth Rocks 

 laying eggs of the same color. The colors vary all the way from nearly white to the 

 typical brown. The same hen, however, lays eggs of very little variation in color, 

 occasionally she would lay an egg that was 'off-color.' Eggs from the same hen 

 varied in size sometimes as well as in color." 



