26 IMPROVEMENT OF THE FARM EGG. 



Where any attempt is made to supply the fowls with grain regu- 

 larly once or twice a day the following feeds are generally used : 

 Corn, wheat, kafir corn, and spelt. Of these the one most commonly 

 used is corn. The fowls do not receive a regular supply of meat 

 feed, and when insects are no longer available they are compelled to 

 exist on an unbalanced ration of starchy grains. It is, however, a 

 common practice to give the fowls the offal from whatever butcher- 

 ing may be done on the farm, and often the farmer may kill jack 

 rabbits, which are sometimes used as meat feed for the poultry. The 

 supply of meat feed is, however, very irregular. Practically every 

 flock examined showed more or less feather pulling, thought to be the 

 result of an insufficient supply of this material. 



Crushed clam shells are used almost exclusively to furnish the 

 fowls with carbonate of lime. Grit in the form of commercially 

 prepared crushed stone is seldom used, but many farmers haul a load 

 of coarse sand to the barnyard and allow the fowls free access to it 

 at all times. Such a method is inexpensive to the farmer and fur- 

 nishes the fowls with an abundant supply of grit. 



The water supply for the poultry is usually both insufficient and 

 insanitary. Vessels of every size and description, such as oven doors, 

 milk-can tops, wooden troughs, pails, and cans of all sizes, are used 

 as reservoirs for water. It is the exception rather than the rule to 

 find these vessels clean and filled with water. They are more apt to 

 be completely dry and dirty, while the fowls can be seen drinking 

 from a cesspool in the barnyard or a wallow r in the pigpen. 



HATCHING AND BROODING. 



There are two general systems of hatching and brooding the chicks : 

 First, hatching and brooding with hens exclusively ; second, hatching 

 the eggs in an incubator and then giving the chicks to hens. The 

 former is practiced to a greater extent than the latter, and in many 

 instances a combination of both is used. Where this is done it is a 

 general practice to set a number of hens at the same time, and when 

 the hatch comes off the chicks are divided up among them. Many 

 chicks are produced by hens stealing their nests, and this condition 

 is responsible for a large per cent of the immature stock that is so 

 noticeable in the fall and early winter. 



If fowls are used exclusively for hatching and rearing, it is often 

 difficult to get the chicks out early on account of the hens' indispo- 

 sition to sit. It was largely to overcome this difficulty that the incu- 

 bator has been adopted on the farm. A comparison of the relative 

 frequency with which artificial and natural methods or a combina- 

 tion of the two are used, both in hatching and brooding, is given in 

 Table 6. 



