BROILERS AND ROASTERS. 67 



trouble hence the two things together make a double risk. 

 I do not mean by this that it is not possible to have chicks 

 thrive on such a ration. Good broilers have been grown 

 that way ; but the risks are greater than when a safer 

 method of feeding is used. 



A ration of all cooked food may be used for broilers 

 with good results, and is often used for young chicks up to 

 broiler size, though they are to be kept for roasters or for 

 stock purposes, but it is questionable whether such a 

 method, used exclusively for the first few months, is advis- 

 able for chicks that are not to be marketed as broilers. 

 The usual effect of an all soft grain food ration, with some 

 green stuff, meat, and grit, of course, provided, is to make 

 a temporary rapid growth, while the digestive organs used 

 for soft foods only, and so not developed in proportion to 

 the general development, become inadequate to the work 

 required of them later in life, when- economy imperatively 

 requires the use of a nearly all hard grain ration. For a 

 few months chicks may be fed exclusively on a steam 

 cooked mash, or baked cake, and some growers have 

 thought that method preferable. 



The more common method has been to alternate soft and 

 hard feeds, or if not feeding them in regular alternation to 

 make about half the day's ration soft and the rest hard. 

 Thus one very successful grower used to start his chicks 

 on stale bread crumbs fed alternately moistened with milk 

 and dry, practically a balancing of tendencies toward loose- 

 ness and costiveness. Others have used baked cakes or 

 steamed mash or scalded mash. The baked " johnnycake," 

 whether of corn meal alone or of a mixture of mill stuffs 

 and the various kinds of mashes, are safe or unsafe foods 



