46 



These mixtures are composed chiefly of corn, 



Meals and ground hulled oats or oat residues, wheat or 



Mashes. wheat by-products and fortified with some animal 



Tages 28-29. by-product or with cottonseed or linseed meal, and 

 sometimes lightened with ground alfalfa, clover, or 



^breakfast food waste. Charcoal is often observed, (used as an anti- 

 ferment,) and occasionally grit or shells. It is not good economy to 

 purchase goods containing the latter materials, the presence of which 



• can be detected by the ash percentage (over 5 per cent) or often with 

 the unaided eye. Ground barley, rye, millet seed, buckwheat and 

 peas are occasionally observed, all of which, are in no way objection- 



.able. One also notes in some brands peanut waste, buckwheat hulls, 

 oat hulls and weed seeds, none of which in any quantity belong in a 

 first class food. These mixtures vary from 11 to 23 percent protein, 

 from 2.5 to 6.5 per cent fat, and from 3 to 18 per cent ash, showing 

 that the makers had no definite ideas concerning the nutrients needed, 

 and that in some cases they were put together as cheaply as possible. 

 The average retail price was about $1.75 a hundred pounds, whether 



•they contained much or little protein and ash. 



It is a fact that exact knowledge concerning the nutrition of poultry 

 and particularly of laying fowls is exceedingly limited, and the 

 present understanding of the subject is based largely upon obser- 

 vation and experience, rather than upon strictly scientific inquiry. 

 Judging from the composition of the egg and from a variety of experi- 

 ments, it is recognized that laying hens must have a food which con- 

 tains a liberal percentage of protein to produce the egg white and 

 yolk, considerable fat to furnish material for building the fatty part 

 of the yolk", and a moderate amount of ash. Experience has taught 

 that the cereals alone do not furnish protein and ash as rapidly as 

 they are needed by fowls bred for egg production, nor to induce the 



.quickest development of growing stock. From its observations, the 

 Maine experiment station recommends the following mixture for 

 layers; 200 lbs. wheat bran, 100 lbs. middlings, 100 lbs. gluten meal," 

 100 lbs. linseed meal, 100 lbs. corn meal and 100 lbs. beef scraps; 



•this combination contains approximately 24 per cent protein, 7 per 



' Whether the yolk can be formed as easily from the starchy matter and protein ha 

 inot so far as tfae writer is aware, been scientifically demonstrated. 

 2 Out of the market ; substitute gluten feed. 



