MORNING OR EVENING MASH. 



45 



the crops of the birds. All will be empty ; the 

 gizzard has nothing to act upon, and the food 

 speedily disappears^ leaving with an empty 

 stomach, to cope with the long cold hours 

 before dawn, the most hungry and incessant 

 feeder of all God's creatures. But if the last 

 feed has been grain, the crop will still be found 

 partially full, and the birds will awake in the 

 morning hearty, strengthened, and refreshed, 

 though healthily hungry. 



While we are fully satisfied, however, after 

 attentive observation and trial of other systems, 

 that this is the best for the usual 

 Morning or conditions of poultry-keeping in 

 Evening tt i j ^i u ? 



Mash. t-ngland, there may be exceptions, 



and especially where climatic con- 

 ditions are widely different. As indicated in 

 the first chapter, in North America the severity 

 and snows of the winter necessitate in most 

 cases entire vacation of the open runs for 

 months together, during which the birds are 

 confined in covered sheds, colloquially termed 

 " scratching-sheds," open to the front when 

 possible, but sometimes needing protection even 

 there. Let any English breeder ask himself 

 how he would like the prospect of keeping say 

 fifteen fowls, shut in entirely for months together 

 within a space of only ten feet square, beside 

 their house; not only, be it observed, to keep 

 them in health, but to force them by high 

 feeding into prolific laying. He will then 

 .'ippreciate the difficulty of the task : how, in 

 particular, would such a one dread an outbreak 

 of feather-eating ! The task can be, and is, 

 only accomplished by providing the most active 

 occupation and exercise. This is mainly 

 effected by keeping the floor deep in straw or 

 other scratching litter, in which a little grain is 

 always kept scattered and buried ; for, as one 

 American breeder said to us, " If the hens find 

 nothing by scratching, they get discouraged and 

 won't scratch at all." On the other hand, they 

 must not find grain very easily or too quickly, 

 or they get too much. Some of these American 

 poultry-farmers state, as their experience, that if 

 the birds have a good meal of soft food for 

 breakfast, they stand about satisfied, and will 

 not scratch for more, and upon this idleness the 

 usual mischiefs follow, besides the egg-yield 

 falling off. Hence many of them prefer to give 

 nothing in the morning but sufficient grain, 

 which is well worked into the scratching-littcr, 

 and which keeps the hens busily active all day ; 

 in the middle of the day green food and cut 

 bone ; and last of all there is a good feed of 

 mash or soft food before going to roost. 



These considerations are of great weight, 

 and some of the best averages of ege-oroduction 



before us have been attained under this system 

 of feeding, whilst the preceding one is freely 

 pronounced "antiquated" by some prominent 

 American writers. It may be freely granted 

 that any system is fairly vindicated by good 

 results, and even that in such circumstances, o( 

 long-continued close confinement, it may be 

 well to adopt it. But the argument, or even 

 the experience, does not present the whole truth. 

 Even in America there are not a few who still 

 adhere to the other system, and attain just as 

 good results by it. Some of these reply to the 

 advocates of evening mash, that their failures 

 with the other plan were their own fault, for 

 carelessly giving the birds so much as to make 

 them torpid and idle. They do not feed so 

 carelessly, but give a somewhat " short " break- 

 fast of mash, after which their fowls, they say, 

 are just as much disposed to hunt and scratch as 

 the others'. There are plenty of farmers who 

 state that they have tried the evening mash, and 

 still prefer the morning one, when thus properly 

 managed. This appears to us to be the truth. 

 In very close confinement, if fattening and 

 sterility and feather-eating are to be avoided, 

 the morning meal of soft food must be carefully 

 and rigidly limited, so that the birds are kept 

 active afterwards, even in their small space. 

 This requires time, and care, and intelligence ; 

 and if sufficient of these cannot be bestowed 

 upon the feeding, it will be safest to give the 

 mash at the evening feed. Where there is 

 adequate open run, however, as is frequently 

 the case, and which in Great Britain is available 

 all the year, this danger does not occur, and a 

 morning mash not too plentifully apportioned 

 unquestionably gives the best results, and will 

 be the best general rule. 



Where only a few fowls are kept, to supply 

 eggs for a moderate family, the soft food may 



be provided almost for nothing by 

 Various Kinds boiling daily the potato peelings till 

 Mash. sof*^' ^""^ mashing them up with 



enough bran, slightly scalded, to 

 make a tolerably stiff and dry paste. The 

 peelings must be boiled soft and mealy, and 

 chopped up rather small. There will be sufficient 

 of this if the fowls kept do not exceed one for 

 each member of the household ; and as the 

 pLclings cost nothing, and the bran very little, 

 one-half the food is provided at a merely nominal 

 expense. A very little salt should be added, and 

 in winter a slight seasoning of pepper will tend 

 to keep the hens in good health and laying. This 

 food may be mixed boiling hot over night, and 

 covered with a cloth, or be put in the oven : in 

 either case it will remain warm till morning — 

 the condition in which it should always be given 



