78 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



banana peelings, large bones, and pieces of fat meat. Once a 

 day, at whatever time is most convenient, the contents of the 

 jar should be mixed with as much corn meal and bran (equal 

 parts by measure) as will take up the water in them and make 

 a moist but not sloppy mash. This should be fed in a clean 

 trough. If the trough stands high enough from the floor to 

 keep the contents clean, it will do no harm if more food is given 

 than the birds will eat up at once, but the quantity, given should 

 never be so great that it will not be eaten before the next feed- 

 ing time. 



Most people find the morning the most convenient time to 

 give the mash. If the mash is fed in the morning, a small feed 

 of hard grain should be given about noon, and a more liberal 

 one an hour or two before sunset. Some poultry keepers feed 

 the different grains separately ; others mix them before feeding. 

 Advocates of different practices often imagine advantages for 

 that which they favor, but no advantage can be demonstrated 

 for either. Wheat and cracked corn are the grains most used 

 in this country ; they are about equal in feeding value. As 

 corn is nearly always cheaper than wheat, the usual practice is 

 to feed about twice as much corn. When the grains are mixed, 

 one part (by measure) of wheat is used to two parts of cracked 

 corn. When they are fed separately, it is usual to feed the 

 wheat at noon, as the light feed, and the corn in the evening, as 

 the heavy feed. All the common grains except rye make good 

 poultry foods. Why fowls do not like rye is one of the puzzles 

 of poultry keeping. In some countries it is used for poultry 

 to a greater extent than in the United States, and fowls forced 

 to eat it here have done very well for short periods, but will 

 not eat it readily if they are accustomed to other grains and can 

 get enough to sustain life without it. Fowls do not like dry oats 

 so well as corn and wheat, but have not such a dislike for them 

 as for rye. They are very fond of oats soaked in water and 

 partly sprouted. 



