PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITION OF POULTRY FEEDS 



21 



might have the same effect, and perhaps reduce the sand 

 much more speedily. 



Division of opinion as to the function and need of 

 grit need not confuse anyone as to the course that he 

 should follow in feeding. All admit that some digestible 



SMALL COLONY HOUSE USED FOR CHICKENS AFTER LEAV- 

 ING THE BROODERS, ON FARRER BROS.' FARM 

 In these 6x8 ft. houses fifty winter chicks are carrier to mar- 

 ketable size for large roasters. The window is never closed, and 

 the door open nearly all the time, day and night. 



mineral matter is needed. If poultry are constantly sup- 

 plied with oyster shell and granulated bone they will cer- 

 tainly get all of it that they need, and a small supply of 

 a grit that is certainly indigestible will then be found to 

 last indefinitely. If the grit provided is eaten freely by 

 birds that have plenty of shell and bone, it may be con- 

 cluded that it is valuable as a source of supply of similar 

 mineral elements. 



Commercial Mixed Feeds Their Place in Feeding 

 Economy 



The foregoing discussion of feeds has been confined 

 quite closely to feeds in their natural forms or as simple 

 by-products. There is a large class of mixed feeds formed 

 by combinations of both whole feeds and by-products that 

 is of great interest and calls for special attention. It is of 

 considerable importance to the poultry feeder to have a 

 correct understanding of the place of these feeds in good 

 feeding practice, and of the extent to which he can use 

 them to advantage, and also of the nature of the service 

 performed by the manufacturers of such feeds, and of the 

 means for protecting consumers against misrepresentation 

 aii'i adulteration of a class of feeds which offers special 

 teirpiations to manufacturers or dealers inclined to be 

 dishonest in preparing or handling feeds. 



Commercial mixtures of ground feeds are made gen- 

 erally and primarily for the sake of adding to by-products 

 of grains used for human food the elements that will sub- 

 stitute in a stock feed for those that were taken out. 

 Thus one of the oldest mixtures, called provender, com- 

 bined coarse bran with ground corn and oats. As by- 

 products became more numerous and abundant, it was to 

 the mutual interest of the manufacturers and of a large 

 class of those who used them, to make mixtures of feeds 

 for special purposes at the mills. With the increasing use 



of mixtures of ground feeds there came a demand also for 

 mixtures of grains whole and cracked. This demand came 

 in the first place from small poultry keepers who did not 

 want to buy numerous different articles in small lots, at 

 the highest retail prices, and also to some extent from 

 poultry keepers buying on a larger scale, who 

 were not disposed to take the trouble of 

 studying out the most desirable combinations 

 for themselves, or who, when they did so and 

 tried to make their own mixtures, found 'more 

 or less difficulty in obtaining supplies of cer- 

 tain articles wanted. 



It was the demand of these classes of poul- 

 try keepers that led to the extensive manufac- 

 ture, advertising, and sale of commercial 

 brands of poultry feed. The high grade and 

 generally uniform quality of the popular stand- 

 ard brands of both mash and scratch feeds 

 for poultry has led to their extensive use 

 among poultry keepers who do not use them 

 exclusively, because their cost as a rule is 

 higher than that of average feeds the poultry- 

 man mixes for himself, but who find the com- 

 mercial mixtures especially desirable for 

 young poultry, and the most economical means 

 of supplying more variety in grains than the 

 stocks of local grain dealers afford. In fact it 

 is the absorption of nearly all desirable sup- 

 plies of miscellaneous grains by the plants 

 that manufacture commercial poultry feeds, 

 that keeps these out of the general market. 

 While the special commercial mixture of scratch feed 

 has a variety of grains not easily obtained in any other 

 form, and is therefore of peculiar value to poultry keepers 

 whose stock is restricted for range, it is also highly valu- 

 able because of the uniformly high quality of the corn 

 which is the basis and the greater part of most such mix- 

 tures. One of the greatest troubles in poultry feeding 

 in America is to get good cracked corn, bright, clean, and 

 free from mold in warm, damp weather. The difficulty has 

 been greater in recent years because of the extent to which 

 farmers all over the corn belt, in their eagerness to get 

 large yields, have planted slow maturing corn, the growth 



TYPE OF POULTRY HOUSE USED FOR GROWING 

 SOFT ROASTERS ON A SMALL SCALE 



These houses are detached, and each has its own 

 small yard withhi a large yard. This admits of closer 

 control of the chickens especially while small. Many 

 persons with a few small houses of this type, or a little 

 larger, hatch or buy several hundred chickens late in the 

 season, to be sold when prices are highest in the spring. 

 From such small plants nearly all successful large ones 

 have grown. 



