No. 4.] POULTRY IvEEPlNG. 71 



lay until the first of February. With a small brood of birds 

 no doubt it is possible to have that result, if carefully planned. 

 With a large brood of birds that have free range, taking care 

 of themselves to a great extent, getting more or less food that 

 the poultryman does not supply, I hardly think it is practi- 

 cable or possible to regulate the molting. 



Question. Do you feed mashes, or adopt the dry system ? 



Professor Paige. For several years I used mashes in com- 

 bination with dry food, mixed up the old-fashioned chicken 

 dough f(»r the morning food, composed of corn, some bran, 

 a little middlings, and either meat meal or beef scrap, and 

 in winter time fine-cut clover ; and fed at noon a small quan- 

 tity of corn or wheat, and at night a liberal albjwance of 

 dry grain. I found that method to be somewhat trouble- 

 some, situated as I was, and I rather wanted to try the dry 

 food method, so I discarded wet food entirely, and am using 

 in its place a scratching food, the base of which is corn. It 

 also contains wheat, oats, a little barley, some buckwheat 

 and sunflower seed, and possibly at times a little rye; and 

 I mix with that, as it comes from the grain dealer, about an 

 equal quantity of cracked corn. I cannot see but what the 

 hens produce just as many eggs, thrive just as well on the 

 dry grain as they did on the combination of moist and dry 

 food. 



QuESTiox. What is the best food for maturing chicks, up 

 to the time the pullets begin to lay ? 



Professor Paige. I think young chicks require a variety 

 of food, the base of which is cracked corn, some wheat, oat- 

 meal and a little rape seed. Above all things they must have 

 green food and animal food, in addition to the grain ration. 

 That green food can be supplied in f»ne of several forms. 

 If the chicks are raised in restricted quarters, you may use 

 cut clover, cabbage, mangels, sugarbeets, or you may actu- 

 ally cut green stuff in the fields and give it to them. The 

 animal food may be supplied in meat meal mixed in the 

 mash. I do not care for it ; it has the odor of fertilizer. I 

 prefer meat scrap that is perfectly fresh ; or you can supjdy 

 that animal matter in the form of green-cut bone. I think 

 it essential that they be fed a variety of grain, vegetable 



