THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



chough on the other hand, it may be advan- 

 tageous in promoting the large falUng combs 

 of the females in the latter races. Great excess 

 sometimes has another and very curious effect 

 In America the large quantities of blood from 

 the great slaughter establishments are dried 

 and granulated, and sold as dry " blood meal," 

 which causes rapid growth, and on that ac- 

 count is sometimes fed in large quantities. We 

 have collected quite a number of instances in 

 which such feeding has been followed by an 

 extraordinarily heavy growth of feather, even 

 to an extent that has so overtaxed the bird 

 as to cause death : chickens have been reported 

 which were dying off daily at two months 

 old, covered by an extraordinary growth of 

 feathers. In other cases results were less fatal, 

 though the increase in plumage was marked ; 

 and inquiry in England has elicited evidence 

 that free meat feeding, on a somewhat less scale, 

 has also been sometimes noticed to cause hasten- 

 ing and greater abundance of plumage. There 

 are cases in which this effect might be turned to 

 advantage. However, meat or green bone feed- 

 ing must always be watched in regard to its 

 effects in enlarging comb, which cannot be 

 remedied if once allowed to reach an injurious 

 extent. Later in this chapter we give a warning 

 as to its results upon laying pullets. 



The best of all substitutes for actual animal 

 food is sunflower-seed. It appears far better 



assimilated than other highly nitro- 

 Sunflower genous foods of the pulse kind, and 

 Seed. the large quantity of oil promotes 



furnishing and good condition of 

 feather. Where meat is inadmissible, this seed 

 may be of service, and many poultry-breeders 

 would find it worth while to grow a portion for 

 their stock. As a crop, the produce is variously 

 stated. Some report a return of fifteen quarters 

 from an acre ; the Board of Trade Joni-nal, in 

 printing a report on this crop as grown in Russia, 

 where it is cultivated for the oil-mills, states that 

 an acre requires about 20 lbs. of seed to sow, 

 and should yield about 1,600 lbs. In Russia 

 the peasants eat the seeds as light refreshment, 

 which is another illustration of their excellent 

 quality, and of the reasons why poultry are so 

 fond of them. Land for this crop should be 

 ploughed in autumn and harrowed in spring, 

 the seed being sown in April or May in every 

 second or third furrow, or say in rows three feet 

 apart, the seeds a few inches distant, or it may 

 be very thinly broadcast, so that every seed has 

 two or three square feet to itself upon an average. 

 Poultry manure suits it very well while growing. 

 For a smaller quantity, some prefer to start in 

 hotbeds early in March, and plant out early in 



May. One caution should perhaps be added. 

 Rats are as passionately fond of sunflower-seed 

 as the fowls are, and wherever it is stored they 

 are apt to come about the place. It should only 

 be kept in iron receptacles, and special care 

 taken to leave no loose grain about the floor. 



The combs of many breeds require care in 

 other respects than avoiding excess of animal 

 food. Heat is quite as injurious, so that two 



days in a hot gas-lit showroom will 

 Care of sometimes "draw up" the comb of 



Combs. ^ \i\xA apparently mature and safe, 



and ruin it for ever. In all cases 

 where combs are wanted small and neat, as 

 in Brahmas, the chicks should therefore be 

 brought up in cool and airy sleeping-places as 

 soon as taken from the mother, and not allowed 

 to get overheated or sweated in artificial 

 brooders. The same applies even more to single 

 upright combs, which must be kept straight, as in 

 Leghorn cockerels ; but these in addition should 

 be taken from a hen, if so reared, before the 

 combs get any height. If this is not done the 

 mere pressure of the hen's body tends, during 

 the youngest and most susceptible stage, to 

 bend over or twist the comb. Brooders which 

 have any nestling material in contact with the 

 head are injurious for the same reason. To take 

 the chickens' heads out of danger early, and rear 

 them with plenty of room in a cool though not 

 chilly brooder or other sleeping-place, makes 

 a great difference to this type of comb. 

 Rather later, when the combs are growing 

 fast, if there is reason to fear disaster it is 

 often of the greatest service to sponge the 

 comb gently every night with hazeline tinc- 

 ture, or to smear it with hazeline cream. This 

 is not only a mild though effective astringent, 

 but has a specific action in repelling congestion 

 of blood to the part where applied, and will help 

 much to keep a comb firm and within bounds. 

 It is of course only befor-e twists or thumb-marks 

 actually appear that such means can be of use. 

 A slight twist, if treated at once, can sometimes 

 be cured by affixing a stiff piece of cardboard on 

 each side, with sufficiently adhesive material, 

 and pressing close. A Spanish breeder we 

 knew used as cement, material scraped from 

 Alcock's Porous Plaster, which he said "held" 

 better than anything he had tried. If the card 

 is varnished on the outer side with French 

 polish, it will be stiffer and not get soft. Combs 

 actually fallen over belong to a later stage, to 

 be dealt with in our ne.xt chapter. 



Another deformity has been much more 

 common since artificial rearing became so 

 general, and should be guarded against from the 

 first. We refer to curved or crooked toes, 



