PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITION OF POULTRY FEEDS 



17 



Cottonseed and flaxseed are of interest to the poul- 

 try feeder chiefly for their by-products. The primary 

 commercial value of these seeds apart from their value 

 for planting is in the oils extracted from them. In this 

 process the seeds are pressed into cakes containing all the 

 other elements and the residue of oil which the process 

 did not remove. The earlier processes of extracting such 

 oils, left in the cake a high per cent of fat, but improved 

 processes have so reduced this that the meal into which 

 the flaxseed cake is ground before being placed on the 

 market as a feed is very low in fat. Cottonseed meal is 

 much higher in fat, because the oil is not so greatly in 

 demand as linseed oil. The chief value in commercial oil 

 meal is the protein it contains while cottonseed meal is 

 rich in both protein and fat and, since meat by-products 

 have risen to unusually high prices, there is an increasing 

 use of both for poultry feed. A number of experiment 

 stations have studied the relative values of cottonseed 

 meal, and meat scrap, and the general conclusion arrived 

 at is that it is a valuable substitute for meat scraps when 



According to tradition, sunflower seed is a valuable 

 feed for poultry, a little of it added to the ration being 

 (so it is claimed) peculiarly valuable for hens while molt- 

 ing. This appears to be another of the cases where the 

 apparent value of a feed depends upon the combination in 

 which it is used. In a ration lacking in fat, plump, well- 

 filled sunflower seeds given as liberally as the fowls 

 would eat them, would undoubtedly show marked bene- 

 ficial results, but ordinary observation cannot discover any 

 advantage in feeding them to birds that have a liberal 

 amount of corn and of meat scrap or oil meal. Much of 

 the sunflower seed given to poultry is immature and con- 

 tains little nutriment so little that well-fed birds will 

 hardly touch it. If one buys sunflower seed he should 

 examine it to make sure that there is something more than 

 hull, and he should keep in mind that an average good 

 sample is about one-third hull, and the actual nutritive 

 value less than that of corn. A little of such an article 

 is useful for the sake of variety, and for that purpose it 

 may be worth a little more than the staple grains used in 





COLONIES OP WEANED CHICKS IN ORCHARD ON A NEW YORK FARM AN IDEAL PLACE TO GROW CHICKENS 

 Windfall apples make good feed and the chickens destroy insects that would spoil fruit. 



only ordinary results are sought, but when the best re- 

 sults are desired meat scraps are more efficient because 

 they are more palatable. Hence the partial substitution of 

 cottonseed or linseed meal for meat scraps appears as 

 the best method of securing maximum production at min- 

 imum cost, when meat products are high and these con- 

 centrated meals .relatively cheap. The substitution of one 

 of them for half the meat scrap in a ration does not ap- 

 pear to make it less palatable to the birds, or in any 

 way to diminish its feeding value, and the saving in cost, 

 while small on one day's ration makes quite a substantial 

 amount when applied to long periods and large flocks. 



Most kinds of poultry are fond of peas but care little 

 for beans. This seems quite singular in view of the fact 

 that in their composition these two seeds are much alike 

 as far as principal feed elements are concerned. It is also 

 remarkable that beans one of the most universally popu- 

 lar human foods, have no attraction for poultry in their 

 raw state, while peas are eaten greedily. Most kinds of 

 poultry will eat raw, dry beans only under pressure of 

 great hunger, and then only in limited quantities. Thor- 

 oughly cooked beans they will eat freely and with apparent 

 relish, and they also readily eat bean meal when mixed 

 with other mill products. 



the ration, but it is extravagant to pay several times the 

 common prices; for such extras, as poultry keepers fre- 

 quently do. . 



Vegetable Feeds 



Vegetable substances used for feeding poultry, other 

 than grains and their products, may be divided into two 

 general classes; leaves and forage, and roots and fruits. 



All kinds of poultry will eat tender, succulent green 

 stuff in much larger quantities than are generally given 

 to them in confinement, but a great many things of this 

 kind they care for only in their tender stages of growth, 

 eating them at other stages only when nothing else of 

 the kind can be obtained. Cabbage is the most useful 

 vegetable of this class for poultry feeding, considering its 

 keeping qualities and the possibility of having supplies 

 through almost the entire year. 



For feeding as cut,, or for growing in poultry yards 

 where the birds can eat of it at will, rape is popular. Let- 

 tuce is perhaps the favorite with the birds, but as a rule 

 the only lettuce that can be profitably fed to them is that 

 which has passed the stage at which it is used for human 

 food. These three things poultry will eat regularly and 

 freely. Most of the common root crop tops, such as beet 



