FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART Vll. 509 



SOME OTHER EXPERIMENTS. 



Some two or three years ago one of our leading agricultural papers 

 secured statistics showing that the farm hen costs for feed from 47 to 

 83 cents per year, an average of about 65 cents. But two objections arise 

 here: First, these hens ran at large quite a i>ortion of the time and 

 picked up much of their food; second, these hens were not kept up to 

 the high-pressure standard necessary to secure "two eggs every three 

 days," so did not consume nearly as much feed as must your forty-five 

 pullets in this experiment. Two ounces of grain per day is the highest 

 estimate we have seen given, but we are sure from our own experience 

 and that of others, that this alone is not enough. We have, therefore, 

 allotted to each one of your forty-five pullets, each weighing five pounds 

 at the start, sixteen times her own weight of food, or a daily ration of 

 three and five ninths ounces. 



A RICH RATION. 



Even the critic will admit that this is a pretty rich diet — much better 

 in both quantity and quality than he feeds — and we are ready to admit 

 that it requires a hen with a good digestive apparatus to do the work. 

 She must have the assimilating powers of the dairy-bred Jersey or Hol- 

 stein cow to reach the mark. No dung-hills need apply. No drones need 

 undertake the management. But it has been done; it is being done; 

 you can do it if you will supply the comforts and conveniences that 

 Madam Hen calls for. To consume ten and two thirds ounces of food 

 in three days and give you in return four ounces of egg is no small 

 undertaking on her part, nor is it a small business on your part to se- 

 cure it. 



Remember one point just here: two thirds of the egg is water. The 

 remaining one third you must give her in the proper solid foods, not 

 forgetting the water, and also provide liberally at the same time for her 

 animal heat, the wear and tear of her system and for the ashes of her 

 animal fires. In other words, you must expect lots of your feed to find 

 its way to the dropping-board, but even there it is a valuable product 

 which we have not figured in. 



COMMENTS ON THE FOODS. 



A few words about these foods in the order named in our table: 

 Corn. We use it in smaller proportion than here specified, partly 

 because with us in western Pennsylvania it is very expensive, but more 

 because it is too fattening. Our hens are kept for breeding as well as 

 for egg production-. The fat hen may be kept so and be made to lay 

 eggs up to our requirements of "two eggs in three days," but the eggs 

 from a fat hen do not hatch well. 



Oats. We consider oats our very best feed. Oats cost us 2 1-3 cents 

 per pound the past season, but they are cheaper now. With an abundance 

 of grit there is no danger in' feeding whole oats. We bought hulled 

 oats the past year for the same price as the whole oats. Fed alone, 

 they are not satisfying to the hens. They do not furnish bulk enough. 



