604 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [15 Oct., 1919. 



Poultry Foods and Feeding. 



Green Feed. 



As green feed forms, or should form, 50 per cent of the birds' 

 diet, it is necessary to maintain a continuous and varied supply. In 

 Victoria it is possible to maintain this supply all the year round, 

 though some difficulty may be found in the northern parts of the State 

 during the hotter summer months. The lucerne plot is of the utmost 

 value, as when ample water and manure are available there is an abund- 

 ant supply of green feed that can be cut every month all the year round 

 for a period of years. The next most important green feeds are silver 

 beet and chou mouellier, which last a considerable while. In the case of 

 these plants the outer leaves shoiild be pulled off and not cut. Lettuce 

 is excellent for young chickens, but rather expensive to feed largely to 

 adult fowls. Onions chopped up, are an excellent tonic and good for 

 the blood, but if fed to excess Avould impart a flavour to eggs. Rape 

 is generally sown in the chicken rearing runs and, besides helping to 

 sweeten the soil, is much relished by growing chickens. Suburban 

 poultry keepers generally endeavour to secure the grass cuttings from 

 nearby bowling greens. 



Root crops such as turnips or mangolds are greedily eaten by laying 

 fowls and may be fed whole, as the birds will pick all the inside out of 

 a mangold leaving only the rind. 



Animal Food. 



Meat meal, blood meal, and rabbit meal supply a high proportion 

 of protein in very concentrated form, but considerable care should be 

 exercised in their use, as a constant over supply will over stimulate 

 and so injure the egg organs. In addition there should be sufficient 

 bulk in the food to reasonably distend the digestive organs and so obtain 

 the best residts from the digestive juices. These concentrated nitro- 

 genous foodstuffs should be purchased on analysis, as at times a slightly 

 cheaper preparation may contain such a low percentage of protein as 

 to be in reality too dear to use. 



" Poultry Wheat." 

 A mistaken idea seems to prevail (frequently with those who should 

 know better) that much inferior, damaged, or smutty wheat will do for 

 poultry. It will never " do " in the right meaning of the term. Next 

 to seed wheat only the best should be used, the feeding value of 

 indifferent wheat making it dear at almost any price, whilst a light 

 weighing oat merely means buying a high proportion of indigestible 

 husk. 



Dry versus Wet Mash. 

 The question is frequently raised Avhether the dry mash or wet 

 mash system is the better. Each system has proved highly successful 

 in the official egg laying competitions. In the test for teams of six 

 birds a score of 1,667 was made one year in the wet mash section by 

 Mr. J. H. Gill's team, whilst the following year Mr. W. N. O'Mullane's 

 team in the dry mash section scored 1,699, which is the world's record 

 for a team of six birds. As these scores were made in different years 



