64 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



fat hens, besides being prone to disease, never lay 

 many eggs. 



One good feed of small maize every second day, or 

 a light feed once a day, is quite sufficient. At other 

 times give barley and English wheat, the best pro- 

 curable,* and occasionally some oats no dusty, husky 

 stuff, please and vary the midday meal now and 

 then with a few peas and beans. Give each food 

 separately ; if you mix them the birds will pick out 

 what they fancy, and leave the rest to spoil on the 

 ground. 



Twice a week, up to the end of March, allow the 

 birds some scalded Indian and barley meal ; and when 

 they commence to lay, give this food once a day. 



Do not fail to give pheasants in an aviary green 

 food evert/ day, and plenty of it ; they cannot have too 

 much if it is plucked fresh and not left to rot on the 

 ground. This green food may consist of cabbage and 

 lettuce, also young mown grass and clover ; and phea- 



* The difference in health and feather between pheasants, be they 

 old or young, that are fed on good barley, or wheat, or Indian corn, 

 and those that are fed on poor stuff is very marked. You may take 

 as a standard useful for testing purposes when purchasing for 

 pheasant food, that a peck of good barley weighs 13 Ib. ; of good 

 wheat 15|lb. Prime samples of barley or wheat would weigh over 

 these figures ; but if the weights here noted are attained, it will 

 prove your pheasant food is at all events good ; so reject any corn sent 

 from the dealer that does not reach the standards I give. Keep for 

 the purpose of testing your pheasant food a peck measure (verified by 

 a Government stamp). It will cost you about 5s., and may save you 

 5Z. the first year of its use, by enabling you to detect inferior stuff ; 

 for it is obvious that good food will feed more birds than will that 

 which is of second-rate quality. 



