PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITION OF POULTRY FEEDS 



19 



feeding quality goes, practically all are valuable additions 

 to the ration, and the choice if there be any between 

 brands of different composition is a matter of price as 

 compared with content. The .best way to compare values 

 is on the reports of their composition as published by the 

 experiment stations which are by law authorized to 

 analyze feeds and to publish the results for distribution 

 to consumers in their states. 



It is a noteworthy fact that the greatest danger in 

 using this class of poultry feeds comes from the fre- 

 quency of their containing much more protein and fat 

 than the manufacturer has given on his label or bag as 

 his guarantee. The manufacturer does this for his own 

 protection against the possibility of many lots of goods 

 running below the guarantee if he places that too high, 

 since he cannot in a waste product of this kind make 

 uniform quality as he would in a standard product. The 

 consumer not being informed of the situation assumes 

 that the guarantee gives exact composition and uses it 

 accordingly. Manufacturers t h e m- 

 selves sometimes advise the propor- [~ 

 tion of an article to use, basing it on 

 their guarantee. This is a mistake in 

 the case of a high concentrate of va- 

 riable quality, for it often leads the 

 user to put into a mixture more than 

 should be used, considering other ele- 

 ments in his ration. Then if bad ef- 

 fects develop the feeder supposes 

 that there is something injurious in 

 the feed, when the whole trouble is 

 that he is regularly using a little too 

 much of it. 



The question of feeding value in 

 feeds of this class cannot be determ- 

 ined by the agreeableness or dis- 

 agreeableness of the odor. Some 



have a rather agreeable odor when moistened especi- 

 ally when mixed with hot water. Others have a dis- 

 agreeable odor rather suggestive of fertilizer. It is 

 natural to conclude that the better smelling article is 

 in every way better, and poultrymen generally are in- 

 clined to give it the preference; yet it happens again and 

 again that when they cannot get the article they prefer, 

 and are compelled to use one that on odor they pronounce 

 less desirable, they find it in every way as satisfactory as 

 the other. Occasionally a lot may be damaged in some 

 way so that it is unpalatable and unfit to feed, but in 

 general what the chickens will eat readily will not injure 

 them, unless an excessive quantity is given, and the proof 

 of quality is in the results. Nearly all meat scraps and fish 

 scraps contain considerable amounts of mineral matter. 



Milk and Milk Products 



Milk in any form is good poultry feed. If it appears 

 to have bad results in any case the trouble can usually be 

 located in an undesirable combination of something else 

 with the milk, or in extreme susceptibility of certain birds 

 to the effects of such changes as from sweet to sour milk. 

 The general statements that have been put out as to the 

 inadvisability of feeding both sweet and sour milk, as to 

 peculiar virtue for sour milk, and as to bad effects of 

 sweet milk, are all based on limited observation and 

 special instances, and some of the most widely quoted of 

 them were soon corrected by those issuing them, but the 

 error always seems to spread faster than the correction. 



A poultry keeper may find that milk, or milk in a 

 particular form, does not agree with his birds or with 

 some of them. The logical thing to do is to investigate, 

 in order to find the reason and to correct it, for when milk 

 seems to disagree with poultry there is something else to 

 be corrected. It may be that the amount of meat in the 



YOUNG DUCKS GROWING FOR MARKET AT ATLANTIC FARM 



In such numbers the ducks each get little of the animal feed in the water, and 



must have heavy proportions of meat in their rations. 



ration is excessive in connection with the amount of milk 

 used. In one case observed, where sweet skim milk was 

 said to scour laying hens, the trouble was that, with a 

 dry mash containing a large proportion of nice alfalfa 

 meal, and the vessel of milk standing close to the feed 

 hopper, the hens ate mash and milk so freely as to pro- 

 duce the peculiar looseness of the droppings that goes 

 with heavy feeding of green alfalfa. If milk seems to have 

 bad effects there is always a reason, and usually a simple, 

 easily remedied one. 



Skim milk and buttermilk are the forms in which 

 milk is commonly available. Regular supplies of these are 

 generally to be had at really low cost only on farms 

 where butter is made, or in the vicinity of creameries. At 

 present there is a partly solidified form of buttermilk on 



the market that is very good 

 for poultry feed. This "semi- 

 solid buttermilk" as it i's 

 often called, is given to chicks 

 at all stages of growth and 

 is considered especially de- 

 sirable for them, as milk is 

 believed to have an excep- 

 tionally favorable effect upon 

 growth. Many poultry feed- 

 ers supply semi-solid butter- 

 milk also to laying fowls, 

 while it is regarded as al- 

 most essential in rations for 

 special fattening. As a drink 

 for chicks it usually is di- 



YOUNG DUCKS REARED ON HIGH PROTEIN MEAT SCRAP 

 Same age as those on opposite page. 



