PRINCIPLES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF FEEDING 



31 



the analysis of a grain with the feeding properties of 

 which he is not familiar, whether the amount of fiber in 

 it is so large that it will not make a satisfactory feed for 

 a staple. Also in considering waste products containing 

 large amounts of fiber he can judge at sight of the state- 

 ment of the fiber in a feed whether that element is present 

 in excessive quantity. 



A feed containing a large amount of fiber and also 

 rich in protein or fat might be a serviceable feed, if the 

 addition of small or moderate quantities of it to a feed 

 lacking in fat or in protein would supply the deficiency 

 without unduly increasing the amount of fiber in the whole 

 ration. But if in order to supply the required amount of 

 digestible nutrients, the amount of fiber is increased to 

 an extent that makes the mixture unpalatable to the birds, 

 the effect may be to decrease the consumption of feed 

 to such an extent that the total nutrients eaten is less 

 than it was before. 



What science can teach us of feeding is of great ser- 

 vice when intelligently used in connection with ordinary 

 observation and practical experience. The final test of the 

 value of any feed or combination of feeds is the results 

 obtained both in production of flesh, eggs, and feathers, 

 and in keeping the poultry healthy and thrifty. To a 

 limited extent we can secure quite free consumption of 

 feeds that are not the most attractive to poultry by with- 

 holding more attractive feeds that are not so available, 

 or sometimes by accustoming the poultry to a ration in 

 which the to them more desirable article appears only 

 at intervals as an extra. Details as to this will be given 

 farther on. As far as they harmonize with results ob- 

 tained in practice, scientific methods of estimating values 

 are useful. Where a lack of harmony appears, it is either 

 because the observation of the poultryman or the formula 

 of the scientist is inadequate and gives occasion for some 

 error. We cannot look for perfection in either phase of 

 the study of feeding questions. 



Since investigators of matters relating to nutrition 

 discarded the idea that rations should be compounded 

 with the view to making them exactly meet the require- 

 ments of the animal, the compounding and balancing of 

 rations has been placed on a much simpler, more prac- 

 tical, and more successful basis. Persons who are well- 

 informed on the subject no longer regard science in feed- 

 ing as a means of exactly adjusting the supplies of dif- 

 ferent kinds of nutrients to the requirements of an organ- 

 ism mammal or bird. They recognize rather that only 

 the larger adjustments in rations can be made by the 

 feeder, and that the minor adjustments must be left to 

 nature to the instincts and appetites of the birds, and 

 to the capacity of the system to convert surplus nutritive 

 matter in excess of its immediate requirements into a re- 

 serve stored in the body for future emergencies. 



In accordance with this general principle it is usual 

 now in feeding practice to make the grain rations to suit 

 the requirements of growing stock and of laying and 

 breeding stock for conditions existing during the greater 

 part of the season or of the year, and then to modify them 

 as necessary for wide changes in conditions, doing this 

 partly through variations in the amounts of one or more 

 of the principal constituents of the grain ration, and partly 

 by increasing or decreasing meat products or green feeds, 

 as the conditions require. The mode of procedure in this 

 respect was briefly described on pages 27-8, and will be 

 treated more in detail in the discussion of particular ra- 

 tions and of methods of feeding. 



The Question of Variety in Grain 



It has been shown, and the fact emphasized, that our 

 common grains are nearly the same in composition, as 

 regards the principal nutrients, and that they have the 

 nutrients in proportions near the average requirements of 

 poultry for maintenance and moderate growth and pro- 

 duction. Scientific students of feeding tell us that it 

 makes no difference to the omnivorous animal organism 

 w.hether its supplies of flesh formers and heat and energy 

 pioducers come from animal or vegetable substances 

 from one feed or another. The main thing is that they 

 shall be in sufficient supply. The elements as obtained 

 from some feeds seem to be more easily or more fully 

 digestible than as obtained from others, but as they are 

 100 per cent digestible in comparatively few cases, this is 

 merely a matter of slightly different degrees of digest- 

 ibility in feeds. 



But while theoretically, and practically for short 

 periods, animals may live on nutrients from a single feed, 

 it needs but a little experience in the feeding of animals 

 of any kind to show that they will not thrive without a 

 variety of feed, and in feeding poultry one quickly learns 

 that they not only want variety in the way of properly 

 balanced supplies 'of the different classes of feeds grains, 

 animal feeds, and vegetable feeds, but that in each of 

 these they prefer some variety, and that they thrive best 

 and are most productive when the feeder caters a little bit 

 to their appetites. This is a matter to which neither the 

 ordinary farm poultry keeper, nor the back-yard poultry 

 keeper whose table waste constitutes an important part of 

 the feed of a few hens, needs to give particular thought. 

 In both of those cases, a considerable variety is incidental 

 to the conditions. But where a farm is heavily stocked 

 with poultry, or a city flock is so large that the waste 

 from the family table is but an insignificant part of the 

 ration, the question of providing a reasonable amount of 

 variety in feed and doing so economically, becomes one 

 of considerable importance. 



The student of poultry feeding can best appreciate 

 the occasion for feeding a variety to poultry, and the 

 possibilities of making variety from a limited number of 

 articles, if he considers the similarity in tastes between 

 people and poultry, and the ways and means adopted in 

 domestic economy for varying a simple diet. The good 

 cook makes a great variety of things by cooking a few 

 staple foods in different ways, and by varying the com- 



LOW WHEELED FEEDING AND WATERING CART 



USED AT AUSTIN GOOSE FATTENING FARM, 



MANSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS 



