242 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



from the assimilated food through the blood cells. It is a 

 wonderful machine of Avhich we are speaking, capable of 

 taking the grains, grasses, vegetables and fruits ; grinding in 

 the marvelously constructed machine, the gizzard ; then 

 dissolving, separating and distributing to the several parts 

 the energies necessary to sustain the body, and storing 

 material for making the product desired, — eggs. We can- 

 not feed concentrated egg-food, for no man can produce it ; 

 but we can feed the elements in the very best manner possi- 

 ble, prepared in the alchemy of God's providence, by a 

 Divine Chemist; and, when fed in accordance with an intel- 

 ligent plan, force the production of what is wanted. 



Under the breeding of the past twenty years the organs of 

 reproduction have been stimulated to a fury ; and now it is 

 necessary that we pause and measure the steps, in order that 

 there be no loss in the future. If we feed corn, or other 

 fat and heat-fonning food, there cannot follow the largest 

 production of eggs, because the material for eggs is not in 

 the corn. The tendency will be to turn the current in the 

 direction of fat accumulation. Corn contains eighty- six 

 per cent of heat and fat elements. The value of any article 

 of food is not the cost per hundred pounds, but its power 

 to produce what is wanted. Tlie cheapest article of food 

 for oijff-makins: is that which will produce an esf'g at the least 

 expense. There must be a turning from the habits of 

 former years, and a study of this question with sole reference 

 to cost of production. 



The expense of keeping a hen varies from one and one-half 

 mills daily to five mills. At present prices of grain, it is 

 l)oth possible and practical to keep our flocks in perfect 

 health, and so in the highest state of productiveness, at a 

 daily cost of two mills per head. We shall be the better 

 prepared to do this as Ave study the food question, and in 

 variety and quantity meet the needs of the system, supplying 

 the food elements from most inexpensive sources, and 

 balancing these for egg production. It cannot be the 

 quantity taken, but that which is completely digested and 

 assimilated. If there be any excess, the energies which 

 would go to the making of eggs are consumed in the vain 

 uttempt to take care of and expel all surplus. Tims food 



