10 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



(4). Small potatoes and other waste vegetable most generally available for poultry food can 

 best be fed in a mash. 



Common Errors to be Avoided in Mash Feeding. 



Whatever may be the advantages of a method properly applied, faulty application of it 

 always involves possibilities of trouble which may become serious. In mash feeding these are: 

 (1). Too concentrated mashes; that is, mashes containing too large a proportion of the richer 



food elements, as meals and meat preparations. 

 (2). Too light and bulky mashes, that is, mashes composed mostly of hay and bran, which fill 



the crop without supplying sufficient nutriment. 

 (3). Too wet and sloppy mashes; and sour or moldy mashes. 

 (4). Feeding mashes too often. Experience has shown that more than one mash a day to 



adult fowls almost invariably and quickly produces indigestion. 



Advantages of Dry Feeding. 



In estimating the advantages of dry feeding, we have to consider some of them as, in a degree, 

 apparent and theoretical rather than as actual, for it becomes clear, as the case is fully stated, 

 that what seems a saving of time or labor is sometimes merely a shifting of labor fpom one 

 place to another. We have then as the nominal advantages of dry feeding : 

 (1). The saving of labor in making mashes. 

 (2). Avoidance of the dangers of improperly prepared mashes. 



(3). Allows more variation in the time of feeding the meal, which takes the place of the wet 

 mash, and so gives the keeper more freedom. 



Errors to be Avoided in Dry Feeding. 



The wet, or moist, mash fed daily, provides daily one feed which is practically a succulent 

 food, and if properly prepared is a bulky food. In dry feeding: If all hard grains are fed, the 

 fowls get no extra bulk in them, and of course no succulence : If a dry mash is fed they get 

 some increase of bulk without succulence. Hence it is apparent that in dry feeding unusual 

 provision must be made for bulky and succulent food especially green food. Taking this as 

 the principal fault of the system, we have: 

 (1). Failure to supply sufficient succulent food. 

 (2). Waste of food when ground grains are kept before the fowls in open dishes or hoppers. 



Which System? 



The writer has no hesitation in stating his preference for the mash system as in his experi- 

 ence and opinion the better system for most poultry keepers. He would therefore advise 

 beginners to use that system unless such greater convenience as dry feeding gives fitted into 

 their days' routine better. 



As a matter of fact the two systems are nearly identical for all but one meal a day, and 

 reduced to the last analysis the difference between them may be broadly stated thus : 



The use of a good wet or moist mash containing a variety of ingredients, makes it necessary to 

 give more time and care to the preparation of this one meal, but in it provision is made for 

 requirements of the fowl which when only dry feeds are given must regularly be specially 

 provided for. The omission of a mash, or substitution of a mixture of ground grains dry, 

 makes an economy with reference to the feeding of one meal each day, but makes it imper- 

 ative that vegetable foods in abundance should be provided at other times. 



As the careful reader will doubtless have observed, the two systems supply the requirements 

 of the fowls in different ways. Each is in effect an offset for the faults of the other. The prac- 

 tice of the most skillful feeders is in effect ajudicious blending of the systems. Some of the 

 most enthusiastic advocates of dry feeding push it, not as the best method, but as easier and 

 safer for the beginner. As there is nothing about poultry feeding too deep or too hard for am- 

 one of ordinary intelligence who gives the subject of feeding a little careful attention and notes 

 the effects of his feeding on his fowls, the better policy would seem to be to learn to properly 

 apply the mash system unless, as previously stated circumstances make it too inconvenient 

 to work by that method. 



