282 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 5 



Four measures of barley, after being 



boiled to bursting, filled 10 measures. 



Four measures ol'buck wheat, or brank, 



after being boiled to bursting, filled 14 



Four measures of maize, after being 



boiled to bursting, filled above 13 



Four measures of wheat, after being 



boiled to bursting, filled little more 



than 10 



Four measures of rye, after being 



boiled to bursting, filled nearly 15 



Rice swells considerably more than any ol the 

 preceding, but was not measured. 



In order lo ascertain whether the boiiincj altered 

 the preference of poultry lor any of the particular 

 sorts, M. Reaumur made experiments, varied in 

 every possible way. The fowls were furnished 

 with two, three, four, five, and six different sorts, 

 sometimes all the compartments of a leeding-box 

 being filled with burst crain, each division differ- 

 ent from another, and sometimes each sort of grain 

 filled two of the divisions, one having nothing but 

 boiled, and another nothing but dry, unboiled grain. 



All that could be inferred from these repeated 

 experiments was, that the greater number of' fowls 

 prefer boiled to raw grain, though there are many 

 of them which show a preference to the raw grain 

 on certain days, and no permanency could be dis- 

 covered in the preference shown for any sort of 

 burst grain. Some fowls, for instance, which one 

 day preferred boiled wheat, would, on other days, 

 make choice of buckwhpat or maize, oats or barle}^, 

 and sometimes, though more seldom, even of rye; 

 but rye, either boiled or raw, is their least favorite 

 eort of grain. 



It follows, as an important practical conclusion 

 fi'om such experiments, that we may make choice 

 of the sort of grain which happens to be cheapest 

 to feed poultry, without much if any disadvantage, 

 always excepting rye, when other sorts are to be 

 had on reasonable terms. 



It required experiments of a different kind to 

 prove whether there is any economy, or the con- 

 trary, in feeding poultry with boiled grain, and 

 this was readily apcertained by finding first how 

 much dry grain sufficed one or more fowls, and 

 then boiling the same quantity, and trying how 

 much of that would in like manner be sufficient. 

 The experiments which, for this purpose, M. 

 Reaumur made with the different sorts of grain, 

 were as follows: — 



Rye. — Although, as we have seen, rye is very 

 considerably increased in bulk by boiling, so far 

 from being more sufficing, it becomes less so; for 

 fowls will eat rather more of it when it is boiled, 

 than when it is raw and dry. Seven hens and a 

 cock, which consumed only three-fourths of a mea- 

 sure of dry rye in one day, ate in the same time 

 three measures of the boiled grain. Consequently, 

 as three measures of boiled rye are equivalent to 

 four-fifths of dry, it would cost one-twentieth more 

 to feed fowls with boiled than with dry rye, four- 

 fifths being one-twentieth more than three- fourths. 

 The globules of rye are almost the same size, ac- 

 cording to M. Raspail, with the globules of wheat. 



Oats. — It appears, that although oats are in- 

 creased by boiling nearly one-half^ they are not, 

 any more than rye, rendered more sufficing as 

 food; for the fowls, which, in two days, would 

 have eaten four measures of dry oats, consumed 

 in the same time several measures of^ the boiled 



grain. Consequently, so far as fowls are concern- 

 ed, it is no saving to boil oats; though this does not 

 prove that the same holds with regard to horses, 

 whose powers of digestion are so inferior to those 

 of fowls. 



Buckwheat nr Brank. — This grain is increased 

 by boiling still more than oats, since four measures 

 when well boiled, swell to fourteen. Notwithstand- 

 ing, there is little advantage obtained by boiling it 

 for fowls, as they will consume the fourteen mea- 

 sures of the boiled grain nearly in the same time 

 which the four measures of the dry grain wouki 

 have sufliced them. 



Maize or Indian Corn. — THis grain is more pro- 

 fitable as ftod for poultry when boiled than when 

 »raw; for the fowls, which would have eaten a mea- 

 sure and a quarter of dry maize, consumed only 

 three measures of the boiled ijrain, and these three 

 are not equivalent to one measure of dry maize. 

 But it is worth remarking, that the fowls experi- 

 mented upon continued only for two days able to 

 get through three measures a-day of the boiled 

 maize. After this time, they either lost their ap- 

 petite, or came to dislike the food, since they could 

 not then eat quite two measures of the boiled grain.. 

 Now, calculating that they had continued to eat 

 even as much as three measures of boiled maize 

 a-day. there would be a saving of more than one- 

 fifth; and if they were satisfied with two measures^ 

 the advantage would be much more considerable, 

 inasmuch as this would not be equivalent to two- 

 thirds of a measure of the dry grain. The saving 

 in this case would be one-third and one-fifth, that 

 IS eight-fifteenths, or more than one-half'. 



Barley. — This grain also was found, upon triaf^ 

 to be much more economical when giverf to poul- 

 try boiled than raw. Fowls, which would have 

 consumed two measures of the dry barley a day, 

 got through only three measures daily of the boiled 

 grain. Now, as ten measures of boiled barley are 

 produced from four measures of dry, three mea- 

 sures are, therefore, equivalent to no more than 

 six-fifths of a measure of dry. The expense, con- 

 sequently, in dry barley is to that of boiled as ten- 

 fifths to six-fifihs, that is, as ten to six, or as five to 

 three, showing a saving of two-fifths by feeding 

 poultry with boiled instead of dry barley. This re- 

 sult is, no doubt, owing to the more effectual burst- 

 ing of the grains of fecula, and setting free the dex- 

 trine contained in them. 



Tfheat. — The results of the experiments on boil- 

 ing grain given above, show that wheat increases 

 in bulk about the same as barley; but the experi- 

 ments made on feeding poultry were considerably 

 different in their results, the saving not being near 

 so much with boiled wheat as with boiled barley; 

 for the same fowls which consumed three mea- 

 sures of boiled barley in one day ate three mea- 

 sures of boiled wheat. Now, three measures of 

 boiled wheat are not equivalent to two measures 

 of dry wheat, but only to a measure and a half of 

 dry wheat, the quantity consumed in one day by 

 the same fowls. But as a measure of boiled wheat 

 is equivalent to no more than two-fifths of the mea- 

 sure of the dry grain, the three measures eaten in 

 one day are equivalent only to six-fifths of dry 

 wheat, and therefore the proportion of what they 

 consumed of dry wheat, was to what they con- 

 sumed of the boiled as fifteen-tenths to twelve- 

 tenths, or as five to four; hence there ia a saving 



