CONDIMENTS AND STIMULANTS. 



199 



not be injurious, and it is common experience 

 with ourselves that they aid appetite and improve 

 digestion. It is universal experience, also, that 

 the occasional judicious use of more stimulating 

 spices is often of great service, and, on cold or 

 wet days especially, may prevent or obviate ill- 

 effects in either very young or older stock. To 

 give really stimulating condiments continuously, 

 however, is like giving medicine regularly to a 

 healthy man, and, like that, any effect at all can 

 only be a bad one as regards health and vigour. 

 Such treatment, with ample nitrogenous food to 

 support it, may indeed force a pullet into earlier 

 and more profuse laying, which is legitimate in 

 a bird meant to be so used up as quickly as 

 possible. But though that may be profit, it is 

 not health, and health is what we want in 

 rearing prize poultry. 



The general conclusions must be that real 

 stimulants should not be given constantly ; that 

 those for special occasions should be adapted 

 for those occasions ; and that any stomachic 

 condiments, designed for more or less constant 

 use, to supply the lack of what a wild bird 

 would pick up, should be of the milder aromatic 

 kinds. As the composition of advertised com- 

 pounds is not published, the only guide to 

 selection that can be given is to avoid for any 

 regular use such as to the taste are very hot or 

 astringent, choosing rather the mildly sweet and 

 aromatic, while the hot and astringent may 

 serve for special occasions. No one can be 

 equally good for all purposes, so far as we 

 can see, and we give here certain prescrip- 

 tions which have now been tested for many 

 years. 



Suppose, first, that a change in the weather 

 has produced symptoms of a decided cold 

 amongst some of the birds, but slight, and not 

 appearing to demand any strong treatment ; 

 then the following would be a suitable condiment 

 to mix in the soft food of all, the ingredients (as 

 in all other cases) being carefully powdered and 

 mixed by a pestle and mortar, and sprinkled a 

 little freely : — 



I. Liquorice ... ... ... ... 2 oz. 



Ginger .. ... ... ... 2 ,, 



Cayenne Pepper ... ... ... i ,, 



Aniseed ... ... ... ... j ,, 



Pimento ... ... ... ... 2 ,, 



Sulphate of Iron ... ... ... i ,, 



Here the liquorice, cayenne, aniseed, and iron 

 are chiefly active, the ginger and pimento (all- 

 spice) tending to rally the digestive system, 

 which is apt to be a little affected. Suppose 

 next that we have wet or cold weather, likely 

 to last a little time ; to guard our young birds 

 against it we may use : — 



2. Cinnamon ... . 

 Ginger 

 Gentian 

 Aniseed 

 Carbonate of Iron . 



1 5 07. 



2i „ 



We first published this in 1S72 as the prescrip- 

 tion of a French apothecary, Mr. Mills, for 

 turkey rearing ; since then it has been more and 

 more widely used in France to bring turkey 

 poults through the critical period, and for moult- 

 ing, and it has been within recent years re- 

 commended for bad moulting seasons by Dr. 

 D. E. Salmon, the well-known American 

 authority upon poultry diseases. For more con- 

 tinuous use the following is as good as any: — 



3. Cascarilla Bark ... ... ... 2 oz. 



Aniseed ... ... ... ... ^ ,, 



Pimento ... ... ... ... i ,, 



Malt Dust 2 „ 



Carbonate of Iron... ... ... i ,, 



Here there are no strong stimulants, but solely 

 more or less carminative aromatics, with a little 

 malt dust and iron. This powder may be mixed 

 with three or four times its bulk of sugar, or as 

 much more of malt dust, at discretion. With 

 either addition it is sometimes useful during the 

 last few weeks before exhibition, helping to fill 

 out a little, and being much relished by the birds. 

 Of the mi.xture as it stands above, just enough 

 should be stirred in the food to give a slight 

 characteristic taste, and no more. Of the No. 

 I, if wanted for a cold, as much as will lie on a 

 sixpence may be mixed with a little butter and 

 flour, and given as a bolus or pill. 



The question of meat, or later on green cut 

 bone for prize chickens, or the quantity to be 

 given, must be answered differently according to 

 circumstances. A diet mainly of 

 Meat or grodts and oatmeal, with grit and 



Cut Bone. bone dust, without appreciable 

 animal food, except insects and 

 worms, will rear chickens of very large size, but 

 takes time, and they will be slower in maturing. 

 Animal food given pretty freely, but not excess- 

 ively, also promotes size, and pushes the birds on 

 much faster and with fuller furnishing in plum- 

 age ; hence such a diet is so far preferable, and 

 numerous careful experiments proved that the 

 same results cannot be got by any dietary of 

 purely vegetable products, even though made 

 up to as high a nitrogenous ratio. 



Eut free meat or green bone feeding is un- 

 doubtedly a cause of increased growth in comb, 

 leading to coarseness, falling over, and other 

 faults in that member. If, therefore, small neat 

 combs are desired, as in Brahmas, Wyandottes, 

 or Hamburghs, or if the breed has tendencies 

 to crooked or falling combs, as in Minorcas or 

 Leghorns, much meat may be very injurious, 



