40 



HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION 



[Jan. 



Poultry Experiments. 



These have been upon a small scale, on account of loca- 

 tion and limited equipment. We have had four coops of 

 laying fowls, raised in 1894. There have been from fifteen 

 to nineteen hens in a house. The houses are exactly alike 

 in construction, each with nesting and laying room, ten by 

 twelve feet ; and scratching shed, eight by ten feet in size. 

 The hens were of two breeds, — light Brahma and barred 

 Ply mo nth Rock. 



We have confined our attention to two points : — 



1. The relative value for egg production of vegetable as 

 compared with animal substances for furnishing the greater 

 part of the albuminoids and fats of the food. 



2. The relative value for egg production of animal food 

 in the form of dried "animal" or "flesh "meals, as com- 

 pared with cut fresh bone. 



1. Vegetable v. Animal Albuminoids. 



Two e.xperiments have been carried out : one extending 

 from Dec. 9, 1894, to Feb. 12, 1895 ; the other from June 1 

 to Oct. 31, 1895. The first experiment began when the 

 fowls were pullets, hatched in May ; the second includes a 

 considerable proportion of the time occupied in the annual 

 moult. These facts account in part for the small egg pro- 

 duction. During the summer experiment the fowls had the 

 run of small grass yards. 



The material used in the first experiment to furnish the 

 vegetable substitute for animal food was soja-bean meal. 

 This is an exceptionally rich vegetable substance, in com- 

 position .excelling meat meal, as will be seen from the figures 

 below : — 



Composition oj the Dry Matter^ Soja-bean Meal and Meat Ileal 



{Per Cent.), 



