POULTRY. 1087 



When two weeks old commence feeding cooked corn-meal, 

 and cooked potatoes mixed with shorts. An excellent way to 

 cook corn-meal for chicks is to wet it up with water or skim- 

 milk, add a pinch of salt and soda, and bake an hour or more, 

 according to the size of the loaf. Do not soak this corn-bread 

 before feeding except, perhaps, the outer crust but just crum- 

 ble up and feed as you would cracked corn or any other 

 dry food. 



When the boiled eggs and curds are dropped from the fare, 

 feed a little meat each day. Boil the meat, chop fine and mix 

 with the soft food. Bear in mind that a little meat goes a good 

 way a table-spoonful being sufficient to mix with a pint of feed. 

 As soon as the chicks are old enough to swallow the grains, 

 the last meal at night should be cracked corn, wheat, wheat 

 screenings, and millet. All soft food should be seasoned slightly 

 with salt, and occasionally a dash of pepper may be used. 

 Twice a week powdered charcoal and ground bone a table- 

 spoonful of each to every pint of feed may be given. 



After the first few days give milk, sweet or sour, to drink. 

 Other things being equal, the chicks that are fed on milk will 

 grow right away from those that are deprived of it. 



Chicks that are hatched in late winter or early spring, be- 

 fore the grass makes its appearance, must, after the first few 

 days, have a daily supply of tender, green food. Lettuce, 

 grass, and oats can be raised in shallow trays or boxes hung 

 around the room where the chicks are kept, and clipped when a 

 few inches high. Raw cabbage, sweet apples, onions, etc., may 

 be chopped fine, and will be greatly relished by the chicks. 

 Onions should not be fed within a week of killing. A supply 

 of gravel must also be kept where the chicks can help them- 

 selves at all times. Lack of gravel is a fruitful source of indi- 

 gestion among young chicks that are raised entirely within doors. 



Feed often nearly every two hours between daylight and 

 dark for the first four weeks ; after that time five times a day 

 up to within twenty-four hours of killing for market. Some 

 poultry raisers who raise large numbers of early chicks, make a 

 practice of going around with a lantern and feeding as late as 



