Feeding the Hen. 105 



clover-leaf; next a bug, a worm, or a bit of gravel enters her 

 crop ; then a seed or kernel or grain. She picks at an apple 

 for a while, samples the raspberries, and if the garden-gate is 

 open she will help herself to cabbages, tomatoes or young 

 squashes. The hen is doubtless laying well all the time. 

 Contrast this variety with the monotonous diet of corn some 

 hens receive all winter. It is no wonder they do not lay. 

 Hens have been known to lay fairly well upon a diet of mixed 

 grain corn and barley being chiefly given at the last feeding 

 and in the morning a warm mash of bran with a small quan. 

 tity of corn and oatmeal added. The grain should be thrown 

 among straw or similar litter, to make them scratch for it. If 

 economy in feeding is desired, give three or four times a week, 

 boiled turnips, beets, potatoes, carrots or any vegetable that 

 may be in the cellar ; all will be relished. It will help out 

 wonderfully if cabbage is kept before them constantly. Raise 

 an extra load for the hens. A cheap food is clear clover-hay 

 cut fine, scalded and' left over night. Feed it with a little 

 bran. Clover is rich in egg-food. Boiled beans are excellent. 

 In the future I shall use my wheat crop for feeding. I have 

 given up keeping pigs. I can get far larger results by feeding 

 milk and refuse to hens. These will consume almost anything 

 edible, even to portions of the straw thrown down for them to 

 scratch in. An exclusive diet of the above tends to keep the 

 hen healthy and warm, but induces fatness and can not pro- 

 duce an abundance of eggs. Meat, in some form, is always 

 an essential part of the successful poultryman's scheme of 

 winter feeding. If near a market, scraps of meat and bone 

 can be obtained, chopped and fed raw, or meat and bone boiled 

 up together. Our rule is never to give soft food to young 

 chicks, unless it is a little bread moistened with milk. It 

 would be better if dried and pounded, or ground in a hand- 

 mill and fed dry. Meal is used only in the shape of corn- 

 bread, and that is dried and ground. Cracked corn is given 

 from the first, beginning with fine hominy, and increasing the 

 size of the grains as the chicks grow, keeping the pieces as 



