1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 243 



consumes food. To a certain limit, we may force the 

 storage of albuminous food ; but if that limit be passed, 

 there results a weakened condition of liver and kidneys, 

 which rapidly develops into disease. There must be a per- 

 fect egg ration, one that will keep the animal in health, and 

 produce the desired product. How, then, shall we feed? 

 Good second-crop clover contains lime for shell material, 

 and albuminoids for flesh and muscle formino; in excess of 

 corn, and is equal to wheat as a nitrogenous food. Here, 

 then, is a valuable food, not expensive. Oats, wheat, bran, 

 chopped hay and vegetables, with meat scraps, must form 

 the bulk of food for eggs, with corn as our sheet-anchor for 

 fuel to supply animal heat or produce fat. In my own 

 experience, I found a mixed ration most profitable. I mixed 

 together twenty-five per cent of oats, wheat and bran, ten 

 each of corn and linseed, grinding all together, and then 

 adding five per cent of meat scraps. Cooking vegetables, 

 or steaming chopped hay daily, and adding just enough of 

 this mixed grain to give consistency to the mass, — say three 

 quarts to the bucketful, — and allowing the whole to cook all 

 night in a covered tank, I have secured a ration satisfactory, 

 yet not expensive. To-day I would rely more largely upon 

 clover. For whole grain I have always been governed by 

 circumstances, finding the best results when I reduced the 

 corn ration, save in extremely cold weather, when it must 

 be our chief dependence, because of its heat-giving elements. 



There is no way of determining the exact quantity to be 

 fed a hen, because of the infinite variety of temperaments 

 and habits, created and intensified by years of breeding, 

 warmth of buildings, and want of regularity in attention. 

 It cost as much to keep an active Leghorn as a sluggish 

 Plymouth Rock. Size cannot be a fixed guide to quantity. 

 Rations, as published, can only approximate. If the whole 

 thing were settled, we could perfect a machine to do the 

 entire work, and save ourselves much worry and labor. 

 The fact is, these enormous profits come only in return for 

 somethino^ <>:iven. 



The normal crop of a hen Avill hold but a small quantity. 

 Distend it by inviting the bird to eat appetizing food, and 

 four times the amount necessary for health will be taken. 



