NARROW OR WIDE RATIONS. 



39 



also be "fed " for if it is to be realised ; and in 

 their practice they do feed for it, by the copious 

 supply of fresh cut bone, and clover or clover- 

 hay, especially in winter when insect food fails. 

 Doubtless, such production and feeding is not 

 exactly normal health, but over-stimulation of 

 a decided character ; the hen is regarded purely 

 as an egg manufactory. If however this is so 

 and she is to produce the eggs, such are the 

 conditions. 



On the other hand, a fowl not " bred " to 

 produce the eggs could not utilise such forcing 

 diet to advantage ; or if any other circum- 

 stances prevented response, such a diet might 

 do harm rather than good. This might easily 

 occur in several ways. All the organs might 

 be more or less over-stimulated and hyper- 

 trophicd ; or the bird might lay on flesh and 

 fat ; or she might suffer from enlarged liver and 

 become torpid, laying even fewer eggs than be- 

 fore the forcing diet was given. We 

 Forcing Diet have an impressive example of this 

 idvantageoua. '" two bulletins from the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College, at 

 Amherst in that State, reporting two years' 

 experiments in feeding two similar lots of hens 

 upon a comparatively narrow nutritive ration 

 (I : 4'2o), and a wider one (i : 6'3o), obtained 

 mainly by substituting large quantities of maize 

 for the wheat, oats, etc., used in the other. The 

 first experiments were noted separately in 

 winter and summer periods, reckoned from 

 December I2th to April 30th, and May ist to 

 October 4th. In the next experiments, two lots, 

 one of barred Rocks and the other of white 

 Wyandottes, were fed on each ration, the periods 

 being October 25th to April 27th, and May ist to 

 September 27th. Each lot consisted of twenty 

 hens, confined in similar quarters, comprising a 

 house 10x12 feet, scratching-shed 10x8 feet, 

 and open yard 24x50 feet, without grass, to 

 which they had access in good weather. The 

 following are the results of the second year's 

 winter experiments : — 



Winter Experiment — 183 days. 



The same test gave in summer similar results 

 relatively, though of course the total numbers of 

 eggs laid were considerably greater : — 



Summer Experiment — 140 days. 



le day of one hen. Thus 0-24 of an egg per hen 

 t quarter of an egg was laid per day, or that there 

 e than four days, while o*ii means that nearly ten 

 : egg on an average. 



From these experiments and results the 

 following conclusions were drawn : (i) That the 

 wide maize ration appears much superior to the 

 other as regards number of eggs laid ; in the 

 Wyandottes, by 41 per cent, in winter and 24 per 

 cent, in summer; in the Rocks, by 91 per cent, 

 m winter and 23 per cent, in summer. (2) That 

 the cost of food was much less, and the cost per 

 egg. (3) And that the maize-fed fowls gained 

 also more in weight. These results and con- 

 clusions were by many American poultry- 

 keepers considered to prove that after all urged 

 to the contrary, maize is superior to wheat as 

 food for laying hens ; and the same conclusions, 

 curiously enough, were accepted without criti- 

 cism by numerous poultry-rearers in our own 

 country. 



Such a conclusion is illusory, and the whole 

 is an example of the loose and ill-considered 

 character of what often passes for " experi- 

 mental investigation." In this case, to begin 

 with, any practical poultry-keeper would call 

 the rations given, poor rations. The narrow 

 one was partly made up of a certain residue 

 called " gluten feed," which, we have been per- 

 sonally informed, hens will only eat when it is 

 disguised in other food ; and the green food 

 was quite insufficient to promote vital activity, 

 or " metabolism," consisting in summer only of 

 lawn clippings three times a week. So limited 

 a supply of one of the most important con- 

 stituents of poultry diet could not possibly 

 maintain the vital functions in healthy action ; 

 or enable them to utilise the rest of the dietary 

 to advantage. In the second place, the figure 

 work of the first year's experiments appears 

 carelessly done. The eggs per hen in 297 

 days are stated as 105 for the narrow and 

 1 28 for the wide ration ; while we can only 

 make it (on the details given) 90 and 114; 

 and where the calculation is given as 0'36 

 egg per hen day, we only make it 0"29. On 

 this account we have taken above the second 



