FEEDING POULTRY 357 



on grain and dry mash until it is desired to pen them up to fatten 

 for market. 



Crate-Fattening Ration. Crate-fattening is used where it is 

 "desired to produce choice milk-fed fowls that are as tender, juicy 

 and toothsome as possible. Birds under nine weeks of age should 

 be pen-fattened. Fowls three-fourths grown will crate-fatten best 

 (Fig. 105). The following formula is a good example of a suitable 

 crate-f attening ration : 



2 pounds barley meal or oatmeal, 



1 pound cornmeal, 



1 pound shorts, 



8 pounds buttermilk. 



This ration should be fed two to three times a day, being allowed 

 to sour six to twelve hours before feeding. Charcoal and grit are 

 kept in front of the birds between meals. Birds are fed from ten 

 days to three weeks and starved for twenty-four hours before start- 

 ing the fattening process. 



Crate-fattening should not be carried on longer than from ten 

 to twenty-one days, or the fowls will go oif feed and die, since the 

 process is such a forcing one. Large broilers and fryers can be 

 nicely finished off in this way. For roasting carcasses, fowls that 

 are not quite mature make rapid gains when crate-fattened. Cocker- 

 els that have matured and become staggy do not make as profitable 

 gains as those that have not yet fully matured. Crate-fattened, 

 milk-fed fowls are always in demand at fancy prices, because the 

 milk ration and close confinement produce such a choice, juicy meat. 



Literature on Poultry. Lewis, " Productive Poultry Husbandry," 

 Phila., 1913; Pearl, Surface and Curtis, "Diseases of Poultry," New York, 

 1915; Kaup, "Poultry Culture, Sanitation and Hygiene," Phila., 1915; 

 Wortley, "Diseases of Poultry," New York, 1915; "Twenty Lessons in 

 Poultry," Phila., 1910; Woods, " Open Air Poultry Houses," Chicago, 1912; 

 American Poultry Journal Yearbooks 1913, 1914, 1915; Basley "Western 

 Poultry Book," Los Angeles, 1912; Fiske, " Poultry Feeding and Fattening," 

 New York, 1908; Lewis, "Poultry Keeping," Phila., 1915; American. Pekin 

 Duck Company, " How We Make Ducks Pay," Boston, 1907. 



Experiment Station Circulars and Bulletins. California c. 99, 142, 

 145, 150; b. 164; r. 1907, 1908. Colorado, b. 164, 213. Delaware, r. 1901. 

 Indiana, b. 71, 76, 182. Iowa, ext. b. 19, 36, 37. Kansas, b. 164; r, State 

 Bd. of Agr. Sept., 1908, b. 107. Kentucky, b. 197; c. 38. Maine, b. 64, 79, 

 100, 117, 130, 179, 184. Maryland, b. 157. Massachusetts, b. 106 r. 1897, 1898, 

 1903, 1905; State Bd. of Agr., b. 1, 1908. Minnesota, b. 119. Mississippi, 

 b. 162. Missouri, c. 76, 79; b. 57. New Jersey, c. 2, 23, 79; b. 57, 265; r. 

 1905, 1906. New York (Geneva), r. 1888, 1889, 1890, 1892, 1895, 1901, 

 1908; b. 29, 38, 39, 53, .90, 106, 126, 149, 171, 222, 259, 271. New York 



