PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 277 



The heads and shanks may be chopped fine or cooked 

 and used to feed the fowls. 



The empty egg shells should he dried, crushed and 

 returned to the fowls. 



DROPPINGS: The excrement of fowls is too often 

 neglected or wasted and sometimes becomes a source of 

 danger to the health of the birds. 



Poultry droppings if kept clear of all litter, soil, 

 feathers, etc., and properly protected from wetness, can 

 be sold to tanners in some localities, at a price that 

 pays for the extra care taken to preserve them. 



Suburban gardeners will oftimes pay well for poul- 

 try manure that has been carefully kept from decom- 

 posing. 



On a poultry farm where crops are grown the drop- 

 pings should be carefully saved for use in the garden, 

 orchard, tillage fields, or on the lawn or meadows. 



Mingling dry loam with the droppings and pro- 

 tecting them from wetting will prevent the loss of their 

 valuable nitrogenous elements. Wetting the excrement 

 induces decomposition resulting in the formation of 

 ammonia gas which, escaping, causes the loss of nitrogen 

 and the fouling of the atmosphere of the hen house. 

 Mingling lime or wood ashes with the moist droppings 

 hastens their decomposition and should not be prac- 

 ticed. 



The value of the fertilizing elements in poultry man- 

 ure varies somewhat according to the food consumed 

 and the products being made by the fowls. Growing 

 chickens use much of the valuable constituents of the 

 food in ..making flesh and bones an^ laying hens draw 

 upon the important ingredients for making eggs. Ma- 

 ture stock and fattening fowls leave more of the val- 

 uable fertilizing ingredients to pass into the excrement. 



The value of the manure of a mature fowl Is esti- 

 mated to average about fifteen cents yearly. 

 11 



