106 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



flower or celery. I bought the largest chopping, or butter bowl, I 

 could find, and a double bladed chopping knife, and used it every 

 day, especially for the little chickens and turkeys. Small potatoes, 

 turnips and carrots can be boiled, mashed, mixed with bran and 

 blood-meal, or with milk, and make a good variety in the diet. If 

 you have other vegetables to spare, such as beets, cucumbers, 

 pumpkins, etc., and find the fowls do not at first like them, chop 

 some up and mix bran with them and soon the hens will acquire 

 a liking for them. 



Another economy is using the leaves which fall from alfalfa hay. 

 When the hay-mow begins to get empty, sweep up the leaves and 

 put them in a box or sack to mix in either the dry or wet mash. I 

 used to try to keep the last two bales of the alfalfa hay, as the balers 

 would sweep up the leaves and put them in these last two and this 

 was just what I wanted for my hens. Sometimes I soaked the 

 leaves and fed them at noon, keeping the alfalfa tea to mix in the 

 mash with potatoes and bran or whatever I was feeding. I always 

 said the alfalfa tea was as good as beef tea. There are many ways 

 of economizing in the feed. 



Economy in Labor 



Another thing to economize is labor. I know many a farmer's 

 busy wife will agree with me in this. I found the dry feed a great 

 saving of time and strength. It was much less labor to carry around 

 to my many pens of fowls, buckets full of dry food nicely mixed in 

 the proper proportions and pour it into a box, or trough or hopper 

 and let the hens eat it dry, instead of laboriously mixing it with 

 water. Before trying the dry feed, I had so many hens that I had 

 a large trough made, like a plasterer's trough, and I used to mix 

 and turn the mash with a spade or hoe and then fill those large 

 buckets full and put them on a child's express wagon to pull out to 

 the pens. This was quite hard work and I hailed with joy the 

 easier task of carrying the lighter buckets of dry food. I found, too, 

 that it saved time to mix up the food by the sackful or binful ; then 

 all that was required was to dip up a bucketful for each pen. I 

 showed this plan to a friend of mine and later had a letter from her 

 telling me it was a great comfort, for all she had to do was to send 

 her Jap boy out to that certain box or bin and tell him to feed that ; 

 she knew he could not make a mistake for it was ready mixed. 



Economy in Water 



Another economy : Have a water faucet in each pen. This may 

 seem like an expense at first, but it will pay in the end, for fresh 

 water is as important as good food, and if it requires but a turn of 

 the faucet the hens are sure to be amply supplied. At one ranch 

 where there was an abundance of water, I saw a small fountain 

 which ran into a basin and that in turn overflowed into some cobble- 

 stones and a drain, so that the hens had always fresh water with- 

 out drawing on either the strength or time of their owner. 



I would, however, caution chicken raisers against allowing the 



