130 ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 



Care of Poultry. If necessary, chickens may be 

 confined to somewhat narrow limits, but ducks, geese 

 and turkeys usually thrive best when given free range 

 of the farm. The reason for this is plain. Fowls are 

 insect and seed eaters, and, when allowed to roam, 

 select the kinds of insects and seeds which they like 

 best. But, when kept in confinement, man forces them 

 to eat the things he provides; and, unless a special 

 study has been made of poultry foods, they may not 

 always be the ones the fowls themselves would select. 

 Again, as has been said in another chapter, if hens are 

 to lay eggs, they must be fed egg-producing foods. 

 If confined they should have constant access to a box 

 of grits, oyster shells, gravel, lime, charcoal, sand, 

 ground bone, and the like, to be used in grinding their 

 food, and out of which to make eggshells. They 

 should be fed meat scraps, skim-milk, barley, refuse 

 from the table, and other foods rich in protein out of 

 which to make eggs. In winter time, green foods like 

 cabbage, turnips, and silage should be given to them. 



Foods. To repeat what has been said in another 

 place : "Nature has provided in summer proper foods 

 for most farm animals, and the nearer summer condi- 

 tions can be duplicated the greater will be the farmer's 

 success." The winter food of chickens should, there- 

 fore, consist of four kinds minerals, which they get 

 by scratching in summer; meat, to take the place of 

 summer insects; grains; and green foods. Ungrate- 

 ful, indeed, would be the hen who did not respond to 

 this diet with a liberal return of eggs. 



