496 Report of the First Assistant of the 



of continuous confinement necessary for the whole year, however, 

 the egg yields were not too low, and as the conditions for all the pens 

 were alike, except the one difference of food, the results are strictly 

 comparable. The results from pens 2 and 4 having no grain except 

 the dry and unground, can be directly compared with those from 

 pens 1 and 3 having all the ground and moistened grain that would 

 be eaten at one of two feedings each day. The only limitations 

 necessary in conclusions drawn from the comparison are those always 

 inherent in any conclusion from a single^ trial. 



As it was not possible to give the beneiit of grass runs, all green 

 food had to be fed cut, in troughs. It is fed in this way to some 

 disadvantage, for, except at the risk of a large proportion of waste, 

 it is difficult to feed as liberally as would be desired at some times 

 on account of rapid wilting and drying. Although all the cut bone 

 was fed twice a week that the fowls would eat, the calculated nutri- 

 tive ratios] of the rations were wider than desired, but with the 

 whole grains obtainable it was not possible to make a narrow grain 

 ration for pens^2 and 4. The nutritive ratio of the ration for pens 

 1 and 3 was kept about that of the ration for pens 2 and 4, although 

 it did usually run somewhat narrower. With the ordinary avail- 

 able, and indeed with almost any whole grain that can be obtained, 

 it is not possible to feed a largely grain ration, having a nutritive 

 ration so narrow as is by many considered necessary. In order to 

 feed a very narrow ration it becomes necessary to use an excessive 

 amount of meat or to substitute some of the highly nitrogenous 

 grain by-products for part of the whole grain. The necessity, how- 

 ever, for a ration so much more nitrogenous than can be had when 

 using a good proportion of whole grain is not by any means estab- 

 lished, although it seems probable that for laying hens a ration 

 somewhat narrower than can be had from whole grain alone is 

 essential. 



The mixed grain fed to pens 1 and 3 was made to correspond 

 closely to the combination of whole grain being fed at the same 

 time to pens 2 and 4. With the exception of fusing wheat bran and 

 middlings instead of ground wheat, the same grains were fed ground 

 in the mixture that were fed whole in the contrasted ration 

 The ground grain mixture I^o. 1, fed until January 24th, con- 

 sisted of equal parts by weight of wheat bran, wheat middlings, 

 corn meal, ground oats and ground barley. The grain mixture 

 No. 2, fed from January 24th to July 25th, contained the same 



