PEEDING A LITTLE FLOCK 49 
eat a large amount of corn if this grain be given 
them at 5 o'clock. 
It is always well to supplement a mash ration fed 
in the afternoon with grain, so that the birds’ crops 
will not be emptied too quickly. Whole or cracked 
corn is not digested nearly as quickly as mash. It 
is a mistake to feed so much mash in the morning 
that the hens will sit around for an hour or two 
before beginning to scratch in the litter. This is 
especially true in Winter, for then the fowls get 
thoroughly chilled. 
There has been much discussion over the relative 
merits of wet and dry mash. By a wet mash is not 
meant a mash which is really wet, but one which 
has been moistened with water, milk or some other 
liquid, yet which is dry enough to crumble in the 
hand when squeezed. The sloppy mash of our 
grandmother’s day is taboo among all up-to-date 
poultry keepers, amateur or otherwise. 
Dry mash means simply a mixture of ground 
grains which has not been moistened at all. Dry 
beef scraps, meat meal or shredded fish and dry al- 
falfa or clover may be added. The dictionary says 
that a mash is a soft or pulpy mass, which simply 
goes to show that the dictionary maker was not a 
