EXPERIMENTS OW id se One 
SUMMARIZED BY 
WW. Pe WHEELER: 
This Station was one of the first to conduct any experiments with 
poultry. Some preliminary work was done in 1888 and since that 
time experiments in a limited way have been regularly continued. 
The first experiments were undertaken to get some of the more 
general facts in relation to the food requirements of fowls. Al- 
though reports were then available from considerable work done 
with larger animals in this country, and from much more in Europe, 
very little was on record concerning poultry, and there was an 
especial lack of reliable data in regard to nutrition. 
COMPARISON OF RATIONS WITH LARGE AND SMALL HENS. 
Feeding trials in 1888 to secure data upon which to base subse- 
quent investigation,’ were with rations largely of grain as usual, 
and contrasted chiefly as to protein content. Each ration was fed to 
two lots of hens, one representative of the smaller and the other of 
the larger breeds. A preliminary trial showed that the smaller hens 
ate about half as much as the larger when not laying, and about 
three-fourths as much when laying. Of the two rations then com- 
pared the average consumption was about alike, and the smaller 
hens took about seven-tenths as much food as the larger, calculated 
on the basis of dry matter. More eggs were produced under the 
ration containing corn meal with a nutritive ratio slightly wider 
than that of 1:7 than under the other ration with a ratio slightly 
narrower than that of 1:4, though the only fowls suffering in 
health were those fed freely on the wider ration. Account was 
kept of manure collected. 
Analyses were made of a number of eggs and only slight differ- 
ences found in food value as related to the breed from which they 
came or in regard to the ration fed. 
"Rpt. 7:59-66 (1888). 
[72] 
