112 Feeding the Hen. 



pale-colored yelks, while the color of the yelks of Leghorn 

 eggs was a rich yellow. During the winter months I found 

 the greatest difficulty in obtaining rich-colored yelks, but 

 always found the best among the eggs bought from farmers 

 who fed their hens liberally with corn, and allowed them to 

 scratch in the barns and yards. Grass, and especially clover, 

 plays an important part in this matter. This was demon- 

 strated to me forcibly not long ago. I had a pen of Indian 

 Games at my father's place, but the yard in which thty 

 ranged was devoid of grass. The yelks of the eggs were pale. 

 I removed the pen to my own place, where the fowls have a 

 fine grass-run, and since then the yelks have been very fine in 

 color. The palest yelks I ever found in eggs were gathered 

 from a flock of hens that were fed principally on rye. J. H- 

 DREVENSTEDT. 



How Can Little Chicks Eat Whole Grain? The fact is, 

 chicks of a few days of age eat but little, really, and they 

 drink more, in proportion, than they eat. The gizzard is 

 capable of pulverizing food without the aid of grit, but only 

 to a limited extent. When grains are passed into the gizzard, 

 and there is no grit there, the gizzard is assisted by the rub- 

 bing of the. grains against each other, the water assisting to 

 soften the food also. The gizzard of a chick is larger in pro- 

 portion than that of the adult, and really performs less service; 

 while the chick may be sustained in its early stage by the 

 power of the gizzard to reduce the food, at a later stage grit 

 will be necessary because of the greater work to be per- 

 formed by the gizzard. Hence, while the chick may have no 

 difficulty, on account of greater capacity, to reduce its pro- 

 portionate amount of food, the gizzard of a larger chicken 

 would soon be overtaxed, unless aided by grit, and the bird 

 would die of inanition. 



