196 Farm Poultry 



dance of soft food, are among the chief essentials 

 for economical fattening. If it is desired to fatten 

 fowls as quickly as possible, the ration should 

 consist largely of corn. Ground oats, wheat, buck- 

 wheat, and barley may also be used to some extent. 

 A variety of foods undoubtedly will serve a good 

 purpose in maintaining a good appetite somewhat 

 longer than could be maintained with but one or 

 two kinds of grain. After fowls have been kept for 

 some time on soft food, whole grain cannot form 

 a considerable portion of their ration without a 

 loss. The organs for grinding and digesting hard 

 food have been so long in disuse that they are quite 

 unfitted to perform the office required of them 

 when hard or whole grain is provided. 



The kind of food and the form in which it is 

 to be given will depend somewhat on the kind of 

 fowls. Some successful poultrymen, who make a 

 specialty of young fowls of fine quality, are accus- 

 tomed to feed animal meal in such proportion 

 that it will form 10 to 20 per cent of the total ration. 

 No one would think of using so large a propor- 

 tion of animal meal in compounding a ration for 

 fattening matured fowls. In one case, the object 

 is to produce large quantities of tender flesh; in 

 the other, to improve the quality of the flesh by 

 confinement, and to induce the fowls to fatten 

 readily. 



Separate the sexes. The sexes should be sep- 



