108 PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 



solvent and carrier of the compounds used by the bird's 

 body in all its life processes. 



To keep up the supply of the life liquid, fresh ma- 

 terials must be frequently furnished, 



NUTRITION. 



Water to drink and food to eat, supply the raw ma- 

 terials which by the processes of digestion and assim- 

 ilation constantly replenish the blood. 



Nature has provided the fowl with a series of or- 

 gans wonderfully well adapted for extracting from many 

 kinds of food, the nutrients which give to the blood its 

 life sustaining qualities. 



The poultryman who is determined to know as 

 much as possible about his fowls may learn, at first 

 hand, many important points regarding their nutrition. 

 Let him take a chicken and kill it by a blow on the 

 head so that the blood will remain in the arteries and 

 veins of the circulatory system. Then commencing at 

 the head carefully cut out the digestive tract from be- 

 ginning to end. At the same time examine and study 

 the successive parts and the contiguous organs as to 

 their appearance and the purposes they fulfill in the 

 fowl's internal anatomy. 



If this form of object lesson is studied in very cold 

 weather a bird's body may, after death, be frozen stiff 

 and solid. Then with a saw it may be cut lengthwise 

 of the body a little to one side of the mid-line along 

 the back bone and the breast bone, so as to show the 

 arrangement of the principal internal organs in their 

 natural positions. 



A searching study of the parts of the bird's body 

 will give the earnest student a knowledge of its in- 

 ternal structure which will be one of the best features 

 of his proper preparation for poultry feeding and man- 

 agement. Repeating this method of direct personal in- 

 vestigation with birds of different sexes, ages and con- 

 ditions, with careful comparison of external and internal 

 correlations, will also enable the progressive poultry- 

 man to gain an understanding of his subject which 



