354 POULTRY MANAGEMENT. 



Milk. Sour skim milk and buttermilk are both excellent 

 feeds for fattening poultry or for laying hens. Nothing has 

 been found that will satisfactorily take the place of these 

 feeds. 



Vegetable Food. In compounding a ration for fowls, vege- 

 table foods such as cabbage, turnips, mangels, carrots, clover 

 and alfalfa serve excellently in adding to the bulk and suc- 

 culence. Cabbage may be suspended from the ceiling so that 

 it will hang above the floor within reaching distance of the 

 fowls. Working at this they obtain much necessary exercise. 

 Turnips and other roots may be suspended in like manner 

 or they may be fastened on a nail on the wall. Clover and 

 alfalfa are very suitable for litter. Sometimes fowls take 

 too much of these dry vegetable foods and as a result their 

 crops become impacted. 



Grains. Of the grains there are many that are very suit- 

 able. The kinds for you to use are the ones that are most 

 easily and cheaply obtained. Wheat is the food par excel- 

 lence for hens. Corn is also a very excellent food for poultry. 

 It is, of course, a fattening food and should be fed as such. 

 It is better to feed it cracked or ground. Cracked corn 

 sprinkled among the litter keeps the hens scratching to find 

 these nutty morsels, and in this way they obtain much valu- 

 able exercise. Ground corn may be fed to advantage with 

 other grains in mashes. Whole corn is large and easily seen) 

 and does not afford the exercise in the search for it. 



Oats, with the hulls on, are somewhat bulky, and on this 

 account are not so desirable in this entire form; but when 

 hulled the oat grain for growing or fattening poultry is very 

 excellent. 



Buckwheat partakes somewhat of the nature of corn and 

 is a good fattening food. In order to accustom hens to it, 

 it is well to boil it for them the first two or three times. 

 After that they will usually take to it readily. Sometimes it 

 is necessary to starve them a day in order to get them to 

 eat it the first time. 



Barley on account of its course hulls is better to be ground 

 and fed in mashes with other grains. It, too, is somewhat 

 of a fattening food. 



Bran and shorts serve an excellent purpose in a poultry 

 ration in that besides furnishing growing material they tend 

 to keep the digestive system in a good, healthy condition. 

 There are many seeds, too, around the farm that can be used 



