QUANTITY OF FOOD. 



41 



a slight gain from the animal food ; and as 

 their laying was not remarkable in either case, 

 It seems to us probable that with prolific 

 layers this difference would have remained 

 more prominent. With ducklings, the addition 

 of the bone-ash made the results " much better," 

 but the animal-food ration was still much the best. 

 In these experiments 1,000 chickens and 170 

 ducklings were fed to marketable size, and 90 

 laying hens and 40 cockerels were fed for 

 lengthy periods, " so that the evidence has the 

 weight of time and numbers." The results are 

 of great interest and importance. They show 

 that if all ingredients are supplied, we may in 

 the main depend upon " substitutions " in our 

 dietaries ; though in regard to eggs, and still 

 more in regard to ducklings, there is something 

 in animal food which nothing else can quite 

 supply. And they demonstrate incidentally 

 the reason for the marked effect of bone-meal 

 in rearing chickens. But their chief lesson is 

 the proof they afford of the necessary place of 

 an adequate supply of salts, or mineral matter, 

 in a complete dietary. That such was necessary 

 to constitution has long been known, and for 

 complaints like "rickets" the administration 

 of phosphates has long been recognised. But 

 an impression has undoubtedly existed that 

 such ingredients had to do mainly with the 

 strength of the bony skeleton of the animal ; 

 whereas these experiments show that even for 

 growth generally, or for egg-production, an 

 adequate supply of mineral salts is essential to 

 a good dietary, and must be artificially made up 

 where deficient, and especially where grain food 

 only is used. 



It will need no direct proof, that any fixed 

 quantity of food must be a mistake. If we give 



at all times, to all fowls, the food 

 Quantity needed by an incessant layer, we 



Food. are forcing the system in a way 



that must cause ill results ; even the 

 layer will be probably " worn out " earlier, and 

 should be killed in good time. On the other 

 hand, if we only give "living" diet to laying 

 hens, they cannot lay many eggs. If a hen has 

 no more than this, she has nothing for eggs, and 

 can only produce a few, at the cost of becoming 

 a skeleton. Of course no fowls are ever fed so 



scantily as this ; all receive considerably more 

 than a mere subsistence dietary, and hence are 

 able to supply us with some eggs, it may be a 

 very fair supply in comparison with what Nature 

 has intended. But if we want her to lay 

 copiously and for long periods, we must give her 

 still more ; in proportion, however, to what she is 

 inherently capable of turning into eggs. Hence 

 we need to sort out fowls into ages and laying 

 qualities, and even feed the same birds differ- 

 ently when in full lay, from what we do when 

 resting. It is all the simplest common-sense 

 reduced to figures, and quite easy to under- 

 stand, but it requires constant watchfulness and 

 care. 



On the whole, therefore, it appears that the 

 best general method will be to plan a main 

 standard dietary in various judicious ways (for 

 prices must be studied, and mere change of 

 itself is greatly in favour of health and appetite) 

 according to a normally balanced ratio of 1:4! 

 or I : 5, and adding to it in confinement a little 

 animal food for all fowls, but especially provid- 

 ing, by that means or other nitrogenous food, 

 and fat, the special requirements of growing, or 

 fattening, or laying stock. As the requirements 

 of rapidly growing and of laying stock are very 

 similar, any difficulty in accomplishing this is 

 much diminished. But a constant watch must 

 be kept upon the e^g supply, the demeanour ol 

 the fowls when feeding, and their apparent con- 

 dition. Out of a flock forced for laying, there 

 is always liable to be a portion which, perhaps 

 only temporarily, divert the high diet into 

 injurious channels, and should be withdrawn 

 from it till able to respond iu the required 

 direction. The more forcing and nitrogenous 

 the diet, the more carefully must quantity be 

 watched, and as a rule somewhat decreased ; 

 the more plentiful and constant must be the 

 green food ; and the more constant the vigilance 

 exercised over the whole. And during moult, 

 or any other period of prolonged rest, a forcing 

 laying diet should obviously be somewhat 

 modified. It is always to be remembered that 

 when such diet is not being actually converted 

 into the eggs or the flesh desired, it must have 

 some other effect, which will probably be 

 injurious. 



