POULTRY 203 



as perfect as he can get it; that is, that his poultry is well 

 bred. So much for the machine. 



Then everybody knows that if he has ever so valuable an 

 engine or machine of any sort, to make it the source of the 

 greatest possible profit he must have materials to work up 

 into the product. The more one an make the fowls eat, if 

 the food is not fed wastefully, the greater should be the 

 profit. If one can breed fowls to develop the characteristic 

 of early laying and early maturity, which would mean 

 in the fall and winter, they would be of the greatest profit. 

 Two hens may lay equal numbers of eggs, but one may bring 

 in three or four times as much profit as the other, because 

 she lays at the time when eggs sell at the highest price. 



Some good feeding rations for laying hens. One of the 

 best rations, and the simplest, is grain, wheat, and corn only, 

 fed morning and night, spread in the litter, changing the 

 proportion according to the season. In the fall and spring 

 feed equal amounts of wheat and corn ; in the summer, one 

 part of corn to two parts of wheat ; in the winter, two parts 

 corn to one part wheat. Keep coarse ground oats in the 

 feed hopper all the time. These are foods which are easily 

 procured by the poultry keeper whether in town or on the 

 farm. 



Mixed with these ground oats in dry mash (formerly they 

 used wheat bran, wheat middlings, and ground corn) is about 

 15 per cent of meat scrap. This is the by-product of the 

 packing houses; it is cheap meat and some cartilage, etc., 

 ground up, cooked, and dried, so that all the germs are 



