42 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



remembrance these are a smaller species. I raised these here on 

 rich soil apparently high in nitrogen, judging by the rank top 

 growth of various crops planted therein ; the vines averaged a height 

 of over seven feet, which is more than double that claimed for them 

 by the seedsmen, who do not usually underestimate the vigor and 

 prolificacy of their well advertised goods. I have a copy of your 

 poultry book and believe I have derived much profit from it, as I 

 am raising broilers and feeding them entirely according to your di- 

 rections* ; some of them weigh close on to two pounds each, and 

 none of them are over six weeks and four days old, raised in brooder 

 coops without hens or artificial heat, but with the best possible 

 care and attention to details, and with less loss than I expected, as 

 this is my first experience of this way of raising them. May I 

 trouble you to inform me of the best method of feeding the beans 

 to chicks of various ages, as I have others at different stages. I 

 have fed them occasionally to month old chicks in small quantities 

 by soaking until the skins will slip, then chopping up fine with 

 bran to make a crumbly mash. I would much like to know if this 

 is a good combination or otherwise, and how best and when to feed, 

 and the proportion of beans, and whether chopped up dry, soaked 

 or cooked. 



"My idea in discarding the skins is that being very tough and 

 leathery, they might possibly be indigestible." 



In reply to this, the skins are very tough, that is, the skins 

 of both horse beans and Windsor beans, and it was a wise precau- 

 tion to take them off for the little chicks, but that would scarcely 

 be possible or profitable if you are feeding much to mature hens, as 

 it would take too much time and labor. 



In feeding either old or young you can make one-fifth of the 

 food of the beans if you have plenty of them, but I would advise 

 not more than that. Your way of mixing the chopped-up beans 

 with bran and milk is good, but I would suggest adding a little 

 cornmeal about one-fifth of the amount of the mash. This would 

 be a better balanced mash. As you have had such good results 

 from following my instructions and formula for feeding broilers, 

 I think you had better continue it and not make any change, or if 

 for any good reason you are obliged to make a change in the food 

 make the change very gradually, that is, add only a few spoonsful 

 of the new food each day until at the end of about two weeks you 

 have got them to willingly accept the new food. A sudden change 

 of almost any kind will stop the egg out-put partially or sometimes 

 totally. You have to remember there is a difference between va- 

 riety, which is excellent for fowls, and change, which almost in- 

 variably results disastrously. 



The best way to feed the beans (Windsor or horse beans) would 

 be to have them ground and feed them in the dry mash for all the 

 chickens, large or small ; for the very little fellows nothing could be 

 better than the way you are now doing. 



When I received this letter I wrote to a successful poultryman 



*See page 36. 



