228 Farm Poultry 



in average gain was coincident with the periods when 

 the greatest amount of skim milk was consumed. 

 Skim milk is especially valuable as a food for young 

 chickens during the hot dry weather; and becomes 

 of less importance as the chickens grow older and 

 the weather becomes cooler." 



Ground grain is preferred to whole or cracked 

 grain, and should constitute the chief part of the 

 daily ration. Practical poultrymen and experi- 

 menters are fairly well agreed on this point. The 

 following illustrates:* "A ration consisting mostly 

 of ordinary ground grain foods and containing no 

 whole grain was more profitably fed to chicks than 

 another ration consisting mostly of whole grain 

 and containing no ground grain. ... In every 

 trial more food was eaten when the ground grain 

 was fed than when the whole grain was fed." 



In addition to the grain given to the chickens, 

 it will be necessary to provide some animal food. 

 Various mixtures of grain foods have been com- 

 pared to mixtures of grain and animal meal, but the 

 latter have given the better results. The domesti- 

 cated hen seems to thrive best, in all stages of exist- 

 ence, on a ration which consists in part of animal 

 food. "A ration in which about two-fifths of the 

 protein was supplied by animal food was much 

 more profitably fed to chicks than another ration 

 supplying an equal amount of protein, mostly from 



*Bulletin No. 126, New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 



