114 A 1ST EGG FARM. 



In the cattle regions of the west, calves are too valu- 

 able to be thus sacrificed, while in the last named local- 

 ity the by-products of the great packing houses form a 

 ready and valuable substitute. It must be an invariable 

 rule to give every bird, whether young chicken, layer, 

 sitter, or fattening for the table, a portion in each of 

 the three divisions, grain, fresh vegetables and animal 

 food, every day in the year. It has been asserted by 

 some that there is no substitute that can fill the place of 

 insects for poultry. We say that beef and mutton, or 

 lights and livers, or fresh butchers' waste of any kind, 

 are as much better as oats are better than grass for 

 horses of which much work is demanded. A partridge 

 or wild jungle fowl can produce her normal number of 

 eggs from forest fare, but not such great numbers as are 

 laid by a Leghorn, Hamburg or Houdan. 



A portion of the grain fed must be ground. The nat- 

 ural mill of a fowl's gizzard, containing hard gravel for 

 millstones, is capable of grinding all sorts of grain per- 

 fectly, but at too great expense of muscular exertion 

 which, though involuntary, is severe, and employs force 

 that had better be used for growing eggs or flesh, and 

 therefore meal and bran have their uses for the poulterer. 



But the soft feed idea must not be overworked. The 

 reasoning that a beginner naturally falls into is that it 

 is a great pity that so much force should be applied at 

 such a tremendous disadvantage in reducing hard grain 

 in the gristmills of the birds when the miller can grind 

 for thousands. But the wondrously powerful muscles 

 of the gizzard are there to be used. Always go cau- 

 tiously in any plan to tamper with nature in feeding, 

 hatching, rearing, or anything else connected with 

 poultry. Experiments have proved that the "balance 

 of power," or equilibrium of functions in the fowl's 

 economy makes the vigorous exercise of the gizzard very 

 beneficial. The explanation is, in part, that the secre- 



