408 AMERICAN POULTRY ASSOCIATION 



methods of supplying animal food are by feeding beef-scraps or 

 the by-products of milk, though usually it is best to furnish 

 scraps and bone-meal in addition to the milk. With that variety 

 the results are likely to be more satisfactory. Milk can be 

 furnished as a drink, if water is given in addition, or may be 

 mixed in the mash and it may be given sweet, clabbered, whole 

 or skimmed. 



Green Foods. When fowls are confined, green food of 

 some sort to take the place of the fresh green grass and tender 

 young shoots, which the hen gets by ranging freely in the 

 fields in warm weather, must also be supplied. In the early 

 part of the breeding season when the fowls are to be put in 

 condition for breeding the poultryman must depend entirely 

 on mangels, beets, cabbages, sprouted oats and green stuff of 

 that kind. Green-cured clover and alfalfa, ground finely or 

 cut in short lengths, are often added to the damp mash or 

 moistened and fed separately, furnishing green food to some 

 extent, but it does not take the place of the ficsh succulence 

 of the greener foods. It will not do to feed mouldy or spoiled 

 vegetables of any kind, and when sprouted oats are used the 

 poultryman should be particularly careful that they do not get 

 musty or mouldy while sprouting. 



Too Fattening Rations. If the fowls are inclined to get 

 too heavy or too fat, the more fattening foods of the ration, 

 like corn and cornmeal, should be reduced in quantity and the 

 muscle-forming elements like bran, clover, alfalfa and meat 

 foods should be increased. This answers better than to give 

 less food if the fowls are eating well, because less food is likely 

 to reduce their strength. 



Outdoor Exercise. When the weather is warm enough to 

 permit, some breeders allow their fowls to get a part of their 

 exercise by scratching in straw which is placed on the ground 

 in front of the house. In some cases the snow is shoveled 

 away for that purpose. (H. A. N.) 



