8 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



III. Ground Grains. 



The corn product*, corn meal and corn chop, are the most important of these, and one or 

 the other is almost universally used as the basis of the mash. Corn chop being coarser is 

 preferable for stock food, but in many places only meal can be obtained. 



Mixed chop is a valuable food article, as also is coarsely ground oats, often purchased 

 separately and used with corn meal and other stuffs in the mash. 



' The by products of wheat flour, bran and shorts or middlings are valuable and almost 

 essential articles in making mashes. There is an unfortunate confusion in the use of the 

 names of these stuffs, the term shorts, which is properly another name for middlings, is in 

 many localities applied to bran, while the shorts are known as "white middlings" or 

 "red dog," (sometimes red dog flour) according to color. White flour of quality unfit for 

 household use is often used in mashes, and when obtainable at about the same price is to 

 be preferred to middlings. 



A number of mixtures of gre^Hcl feed stuff! are on the market, and many users of them 

 report good results; but ifts.better for the beginner who wants to learn his business to 

 learn to mix stuffs before buying mixtures, then if a mixture needs to be altered to suit 

 his purpose or the rest of his ration he will soon discover that fact. 



IV. Green and Vegetable Foods. 



The best of these, all things considered, is cabbage, but it cannot always be obtained at a 

 satisfactory price. Indeed unless a poultrymau has laid in a supply in the fall he is 

 very uncertain of getting it. Then cut clover and alfalfa, and clover and alfalfa meal 

 make excellent green foods, and can generally be obtained at reasonable prices. Potatoes, 

 turnips, beets, carrots, onions, apples, etc., are useful when on hand or procurable at low 

 prices. 



V. Meat Foods. 



While it is difficult to estimate relative values of meat foods exactly, and the quality 

 of articles of the same name or brand is not always the same, green cut bone is generally 

 considered the best of the meat foods, and would probably be used in preference 

 to any and all others if it could be obtained in ample supply at a price which would not 

 too much increase the cost of the ration. 



Most poultry keepers use more or less of the prepared meat scraps, meals, etc. There 

 are many brands of these, and they are of widely different feeding value. 



VI. Food Accessories. 



Shell seems to be indispensable for laying stock. Ground oyster shell is most commonly 

 used. 



Grit is generally given with shell, both being kept before the fowls, but while con- 

 siderable quantities of it are often consumed, it does not seem to be absolutely essential 

 to fowls supplied with shell. 



Charcoal used as a corrective and blood purifier is kept before the fowls in granulated 

 form by most poultrymen. 



Of condiments, egg powders and foods, there are many, and they are very generally 

 used by novices, and in a great many cases seem to contribute enough to results tojustify 

 their use. Their virtue is in tonic and stimulating properties. They help correct the 

 novice's faults in feeding. 



VII. Drinks. 



Fowls should be liberally supplied with good water. So large a proportion of their diet 

 consists of concentrated foods that an abundance of liquid is necessary to keep the digest- 

 ive organs working freely. 



Milk sweet, sour, or clabber may be given them as a drink, or mixed in the mash; 

 but as a drink, milk is but a partial substitute for water, which should always be 

 supplied. 



The Food Supplies for a Flock. 



For economy, and a simple system of feeding, the poultryman should use as few articles as 

 Is consistent with an attractive variety in the ration. For his mash he needs corn chop or meal, 

 bran and middlings, or flour. Then if he supplies his hens with green food and meat food, as 





