170 PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 



board partitions, making three compartments, each large 

 enough for five chickens. 



A V-shaped feed-trough, three inches deep, made of 

 boards of three-fourths inch thickness, is supported on 

 notched end boards, holding the trough in front of the 

 coop just above the level of the floor. Vertical sliding 

 doors, each of three upright slats nailed to a top and 

 bottom cleat at the front of the coops give access to the 

 compartments. 



Healthy, well grown chickens of three to three and 

 one-half pounds weight are well suited for fattening by 

 the cramming process. 



Gravel or other form of grit is supplied two or three 

 times a week. Wkter is given twice daily and not left 

 before the birds. 



During the first week the chickens are fed from the 

 tvough all they will eat three times a day. 



Dufing the second, third and fourth weeks the birds 

 are crammed twice daily. If at cramming time there is 

 any food left in a bird's crop he is left unfed until the 

 next meal. If a chicken gets out of condition he is 

 given a teaspoonful of Glauber's Salts (soda sulfate) 

 and; turned out on a grassed run. 



The food consists of very finely ground barley meal, 

 corn meal, wheat middlings, oat meal and animal meal 

 mixed with skim-milk or butter-milk. Buckwheat flour 

 and finely ground millet are sometimes used. 



A sample ration may be made of the following: 

 Corn-meal by weight five parts; wheat middlings, four 

 parts; ground oats, one part; animal meal, one part. 



During the last week melted fat may be mingled in 

 the paste, at first one-fourth pound, increasing daily 

 until ten ounces per day are used for twenty chickens. 

 The food is mixed several hours before using, to a 

 smooth, creamy paste of just the right consistency to 

 flow when forced into the bird's crop. 



There are a number of English and American cram- 

 ming machines manufactured for sale. Usually a bucket- 

 shaped reservoir holds the paste which passes as needed 



