182 



Farm Poultry 



Meat foods. Poultrymen find it to their advan- 

 tage to imitate the natural food of the fowls and 

 to furnish some meat food. Fowls that are given 

 a wide range in the summer time feed largely on 

 insects and earthworms; but during the winter 



months, and when fowls are 

 confined in comparatively 

 small houses and yards, it 

 will be best to feed meat in 

 some form. "Vegetable foods, 

 even though furnishing equal 

 amounts of all nutrients and 

 in the proportions con- 

 sidered suitable, are shown 

 to be much inferior to ani- 

 mal foods furnishing the 

 same amounts of nutrients 

 and in the same propor- 

 tions.' 7 * 



Fresh bones, which may be obtained from meat- 

 markets, if finely cut with bone-cutters (Figs. 58, 

 59), make one of the best, if not the best, of meat 

 foods for laying hens. This is also excellent for 

 little chickens. Many poultrymen, however, can- 

 not depend upon the local meat-markets for their 

 supply, particularly during the warm weather. 

 After the bones have become tainted they should 

 be rejected as unfit for poultry food. When fresh 



*Eighth Annual Report, Mass. Hatch Experiment Station. 



FIG. 58. A bone-cutter. 



