56 



HOW TO FEED POULTRY FOR ANY PURPOSE WITH PROFIT 



On the second day supply a bran mash in shallow pans as 

 follows: 



Wheat bran 8 pounds 



Bone meal ' 4 pounds 



Medium sand 4 pounds 



Charcoal 1 pound 



After eight or nine days discontinue the oatmeal mash and 

 substitute the following: 



Wheat bran 12 pounds 



Shorts 3 pounds 



Ground oats 6 pounds 



Alfalfa meal 3 pounds 



Soy bean meal 1 pound 



Bone meal 2 pounds 



Meat or fish meal 1 pound 



Charcoal 3 pounds 



Feed sprouted oats, fine cut clover, or lawn 

 clipping's. 



Ration Xo. 19 California Experiment Station Ration 



SCRATCH MIXTURE: 



Wheat 20 pounds 



Granulated oats 15 pounds 



Millet 5 pounds 



Rice 2 pounds 



Cracked corn 6 pounds 



Grit 10 pounds 



Charcoal 5 pounds 



Bone meal 5 pounds 



The ingredients in this mixture are used at first very 

 fine. After about ten days coarser wheat and oats are given, 

 the amount being gradually increased until no small chick 

 feed is used. Then whole wheat and coarser cracked corn 

 are added and the amounts of these gradually increased un- 

 til at six or seven weeks they are the only grains fed. 



After the eighth to tenth day a mash is used, which is 

 not always of the same composition, variations being made 

 to suit the availability and cost of feeds. The two follow- 

 ing are recommended as equally satisfactory: 



a Bran 3 pounds 



Shorts ; 2 pounds 



Coarse corn meal 1 pound 



Oatmeal 1 pound 



Meat meal -.... 1 A pound 



Bone meal % pound 



Charcoal % pound 



b Bran 4 pounds 



Alfalfa meal 2 pounds 



Corn meal 1 pound 



Meat meal *4 pound 



Bone meal 14 pound 



Charcoal % pound 



These mashes are fed either dry or moist. 



Ration No. 20 Kansas Experiment Station Ration 



SCRATCH MIXTURE: 



Corn chop (sifted) 2 pounds 



Cracked kafir corn 2 pounds 



Cracked wheat 2 pounds 



Millet .'. 1 pound 



This is fed in litter five times a day for the first few 

 days, after that three times a day. After a few weeks 

 whole wheat and larger cracked corn are substituted for 

 the small grains. The following dry mash is kept before 

 the chicks all the time: 



Corn meal 2 pounds 



Shorts 2 pounds 



Bran 2 pounds 



Meat scrap 2 pounds 



Charcoal % pound 



These foregoing rations have been taken mostly from 

 recent bulletins, though in a few cases where recent bul- 

 letins either do not give specifications as recommended for 

 a state, or give one or more of the rations for other 

 states as given above, the writer has gone to publications 

 of eight or ten years back for rations as recommended 

 especially for the locality. As a matter of fact, no import- 

 ant changes in chick feeding practice have occurred in the 

 past decade except changes in individual practice. The 

 popularization of the use of dry mashes, which took place 

 in the early years of this century made the only consider- 

 able change in methods of chick feeding that has taken 

 place since the development of artificial hatchers and 

 brooders made it possible to handle chicks in large num- 

 bers. All rations probably that have been used at ex- 

 periment stations and 'colleges were first used by practi- 

 cal commercial poultrymen, but in general the statements 

 oi practical poultrymen of their methods of feeding are 

 not specific as to amounts, while the educator or investi- 

 gator ascertains either by measurements of ingredients in 

 commercial poultry keepers' rations, or by experimenting 

 with the ingredients he recommends in various propor- 

 tions, the ordinary average composition of the ration he 



uses. The great value of formulas given by educational 

 and experimental workers is that they supply definite 

 standards as bases for feeding. A superficial comparison 

 of the twenty rations here given, however, will show any 

 person that no fine balancing of ingredients is necessary. 

 If that were so we would not find dissimilar rations used 

 in near-by states with the same climate and general con- 

 ditions, and similar rations used in widely separated 

 states with very different climatic conditions. Some states 

 not represented here were omitted because the rations 

 their experiment stations recommend are those that have 

 been popularized by institutions in the above list. Men 

 trained in an institution in one section and taking charge 

 of work in an institution in a different section" are apt to 

 take with them the methods they learned, and if they are 

 not themselves adaptable they may at first urge the meth- 

 ods they know best, though the practice of good local 

 poultrymen would indicate certain modifications of it as 

 desirable for that locality. The thing that most affects 

 the acceptance of particular formulas for feeding in many 

 localities remote from the institutions at which they have 

 been worked out is the completeness of detail in the de- 

 scription of a feeding method. In other words, the better 

 an educator does his peculiar part of giving the public in- 

 struction, the more widely his ideas will be accepted, re- 

 gardless of the fact that many other formulas, not so 

 well piesented may be just as good, and some may be bet- 

 ter for particular localities and conditions. 



The reader will note that in some of the rations given 

 above, gradual changes to suit the age of chicks, or to 

 use more economical feeds are indicated, and that these 

 changes obviously are not made in accordance with care- 

 ful computations of the chemical values of the feeds used, 

 but are such changes as a practical feeder would make 

 on practical judgment of the commonly known properties 

 of feeds. Also in using any formula, the quality of arti- 

 cles in it as they can be obtained must be considered, 

 and if an article is of poor quality, the standard of the 

 ration as a whole must be kept up by increasing the quan- 

 tity of something of higher nutritive value. It is the in- 

 tention always to avoid the use of inferior articles, espe- 

 cially for brooder chicks, yet there are times when a 

 poultry keeper has to use them to a limited extent because 

 of inability to get sufficient supplies of the desired quality. 



In general a poultry keeper may be sure that a ration 

 tljat gives satisfactory results at an agricultural college 

 or experiment station in his section is a good ration for 

 him to use. Comparison of the rations recommended by 

 various institutions also should show him that if for any 

 reason a ration recommended especially to poultry keep- 

 ers of his state is not as available, or as economical as 

 some other ration, he not only has a wide range of choice 

 in rations recommended by other institutions, but the 

 whole list of standard commercial mixtures is used suc- 

 cessfully in nearly every part of the country, their dis- 

 tribution being governed not by their peculiar adapt- 

 ability to certain localities, but by costs of transportation. 



Some Chick Rations Used and Recommended by Prac- 

 tical Poultry Growers 



Ration No. 21 Henry D. Smith's Ration 



Peed five or six times a day any good commercial chick 

 feed, alternated with feeds of dry mash or beef scrap. For 

 dry mash use a mixture of bran shorts and corn meal, equal 

 parts by measure. Feed beef scrap separately in troughs 

 once or twice a day, giving the chicks what they will clean 

 up in a few minutes. After the chicks are three or four 

 wee"ks old the chick feed is largely discontinued, and with 

 the dry mash and scraps still given as described, they are 

 fed a scratch mixture consisting of two parts cracked corn, 

 one part cracked wheat, and one part hulled oats. Water is 

 kept before them all the time in small pans, fed by auto- 

 matic faucets. For green feed, cut clover is used. 



