§d8 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off, Dod, 



The low down wagon used to carry the water barrels is shown in 

 Fig. 20. This is the wagon used to carry the feed, water, milk, &c 

 and make tlie rounds in caring for the large flocks. To clean out the 

 houses it is arranged as shown in Fig. 27. Two hoys can go a mile 

 and do all the work of feeding and watering 2,000 to o,000 chickens 

 in less than an hour. 



In our experiment where we tried seven methods of feeding chickens 

 we found a great difference in growth. You can get the details by 

 sending for our bulletin No. 282. In Fig. 28 you will see the contrast 

 in the size of the chickens and what it will mean if the feeding of 

 chickens is properly d(me. We fed seven dill'erent kinds of rations. 

 At nine weeks we killed all of the chickens that weighed one and oue- 

 fourth to one and one-half pounds as broilers and ihis is the result. 

 You will notice on three rations there were a large number of chickens 

 ready for killing at nine weeks; whereas, on other rations, there were 

 only six or seven, and on this ration where they had praclically all 

 dry mash only a few more were ready; and where only cracked grain 

 was fed only a few more. Later, at the time of killing, at ten weeks 

 old you will notice these rations have the same proportion of chickens; 

 and then at the final killing, eleven weeks old, almost no chickens 

 were left to be killed from this flock and almost all the chickens or a 

 very large proportion of them remained over to be killed at the end of 

 the ex])eriment. It was a very marked contrast due to the methods of 

 feeding, and all the feeding was done by the same perscm. 



Did you ever see chickens look like those in Fig. 29? Thousands 

 and millions of chickens have been dying of the disease know as the 

 white diarrhea. These chickens are sulTering from that disease. Dr. 

 Retgar, of the New Haven, Conn. Experiment Stati(m, has found that 

 this bacillary white diarrhea is a bacterial disease that is carried from 

 one generation to the other through the ovary of the hen and the 

 bacteria is left in the yoke of the egg so that the chicken is doomed to 

 have the disease before hatched. If the chicken survives because it has 

 a weak form of the disease it gives it to the next generati(m and so 

 carries it on. It has been found also that the little chickens if they 

 are not born with the disease in them may catch it up to the time 

 they are four or five days old from other chickens that had it, but if 

 not so doomed they will get through without tr<mble. 



Fig. 30 shows what must be done as a means of j)revention and that 

 is thorough disinfection with 5 per cent, carbolic acid and 5 per cent, 

 sulphuric acid and water 90 per cent, in order to be sure of killing the 

 disease germs existing, and selecting the hens rigidly to find out that 

 we do not liave the disease on the place, and generally by keeping the 

 chickens or hens away from where white diarrhea exists. 



In Fig. ?>1 is shown a correllation between the number of eggs a 

 hen will lay, the weight of the hen and amount of food that hen will 

 consume. You will notice as these curves of food consumption dro]) 

 the Aveight has gone down and the egg production down. As the feed 

 consumed goes up, the weight goes u]) and egg ])roduction goes ui>; 

 when the food consum])tion declines the es:ii. production declines. 

 These curves illustrate the most fundamental thing we know about 

 feeding hens. It is this: that hens to lay well must have all they can 

 eat of the right kind of food; and second, they must liave that feed 

 before they Isegin to lay. I met a man this winter who said his hens 

 were not laying and he was not going to give them anything more to 



