PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 121 



10. A suitable strain of fowls should be selected 

 for accomplishing the' purposes of the poultry feeder. 

 The birds must be adapted to the local conditions. 



The best of rations and the most careful system of 

 feeding are fully effective only when the fowls have 

 the capacity to promptly utilize the food and the powers 

 to transform its digestible nutrients into desirable and 

 valuable products. The flock should, in fact, possess 

 the feeding quality in superior degree. According to 

 the object of the poultryman the fowls should be easy 

 keeping i. e. maintaining themselves on a reasonable pro- 

 portion of the food consumed, early maturing and read- 

 ily fattening if to be disposed of as dressed poultry, 

 excellent layers if eggs are the product mostly desired 

 and growing fine feathers if exhibition plumage is the 

 main thing. 



SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION OF FEEDING. 



Since the value of a food for furnishing nourish- 

 ment depends solely upon the nutrients which can be 

 extracted from it by the processes of digestion it- is pos- 

 sible to measure and compare the valuations of different 

 feed-stuffs. 



This knowledge being acquired it is then practicable 

 to mingle several feed-stuffs in a daily ration so that 

 the quantities and proportions of the total digestible 

 nutrients contained in the complete ration shall fit the 

 needs of the fowls. Such a ration will be well adapated 

 to the purpose of feeding according to the season, the 

 condition of the fowls, their environment and the pro- 

 ducts they are expected to make. 



By chemical analysis the composition of the differ- 

 ent kinds of feed-stuffs has been ascertained. Only a 

 percentage of each of the compounds contained in a 

 feed-stuff is digestible, however. 



Experiments have been conducted in feeding ani- 

 mals in order to learn what the percentages of digesti- 

 bility really are. These percentages are termed the 

 co-efficients of digestibility and they state the averages 

 of actual nourishment obtainable, under the conditions 



