FEEDING POULTRY 351 



first tray is at the bottom and the oats are ready to feed. The oat 

 sprouts should be four to five inches high when fed. 



Three things are necessary to sprout grains successfully: (1) A 

 temperature of not less than 70 degrees; (2) moisture; (3) good 

 ventilation. The temperature must usually be secured by artificial 

 heat. Moisture is supplied by wetting the trays every day with 

 warm water from a sprinkling pot. Cracks must be left between 

 the boards in the bottom of the trays so that surplus water will 

 drain away and not rot the oats. Until the sprouts begin to show 

 in a tray, the oats should be raked over each time they are wetted to 

 insure an even distribution of moisture. Raking after the sprouts 

 appear will break them off. Plenty of moisture is of prime impor- 

 tance for good quick growth. 



A number of kinds of lamp-heated sprouting cabinets are manu- 

 factured, and racks of trays can be made and kept in a warm room 

 or in a cellar with a furnace. To prevent mold, the flats should be 

 thoroughly scrubbed and washed with a 5 per cent solution of 

 formaldehyde each time they are emptied. 



Mangels or stock beets are excellent for winter feeding and in 

 some localities, like the South and Southwest, can be left in the 

 ground all winter arid harvested as needed. In feeding the mangel 

 it can be split into big pieces and a piece rammed on a nail about a 

 foot from the ground in each pen, for the birds to pick at, or it may 

 be run through a root cutter and fed in a moist mash. 



Pumpkins are split up and fed raw, seeds and all. 



Cabbage is usually stored in pits or cellars and taken out as 

 needed. It makes a very succulent winter green feed, but is not so 

 easy to grow and keep as mangels, nor is it as economical a feed. 



Raw potatoes are not relished by the fowls and are therefore 

 generally boiled and mixed with the mash. 



Steamed clover and alfalfa hay do not compare with the other 

 feeds mentioned either in succulence or palatability. As a protein 

 feed containing considerable crude fiber to be used in connection 

 with concentrated fat-forming feeds, like corn or other grain, such 

 feeds are very good. Alfalfa meal mixed in a dry mash has prac- 

 tically no value as a green feed. 



Charcoal acts as a blood purifier and as a preventive of indiges- 

 tion by absorbing poisonous gases. One pound to forty pounds of 

 mash is about the right amount to feed when added to the mash, 

 or it may be fed separately in self-feeding hoppers. 



Salt in small quantities seems to increase the palatability of the 



