Poultry Hygiene 23 



been worked out empirically by the successful poultryman 

 are essentially attempts to satisfy the individual tastes of 

 the birds to as great a degree as possible, at a minimum labor 

 cost. This result is obtained in practice by offering to the 

 flock a variety of food materials so that they may have some 

 opportunity of choice as to what they shall eat. If we feed 

 corn, wheat, and oats the fowl which likes corn has the op- 

 portunity to live on corn, whereas the fowl which likes 

 about three parts wheat and one part oats is able to satisfy 

 her taste in this regard. 



As a result of this manifest need for a variety of food it 

 has come about that the practice now generally accepted 

 as best is to put regularly before fowls food substances 

 belonging to four different categories. These categories 

 are : 



1. Dry whole (or coarsely broken) grains {e.g., corn, 

 wheat, oats, barley, etc.). 



2. Ground grains {e.g., bran, middlings, corn meal, 

 linseed meal and other finely ground grains). 



3. Animal products {e.g., beef scrap, blood meal, fish 

 scrap, green cut bone, etc.). 



4. Succulent or green foods {e.g., mangolds, cabbages, 

 beets, sprouted oats, green corn fodder, etc.). 



The proportions in which these different kinds of food 

 material are fed differ to a considerable extent among 

 different poultrymen. The exact proportions in which they 

 are given really matter very little, owing to the fact, al- 

 ready brought out, that the hen compounds her own ration 

 to her own taste if given the material. Furthermore it 

 makes little difference whether the ground grains are fed 

 dry or wet. It is cheaper to feed them dry (because of 

 labor saved), and therefore the "dry-mash system" of 

 feeding has become popular. 



There are certain basic principles of hygienic feeding which 



