112 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEELING. 



LESSON XIV. 



Simple vs. So=Called Scientific Poultry Feeding, 



SIMPLE poultry feeding I would define as following, or trying to follow, the practice of 

 successful poultry men. 

 It is what might well be called the " natural method " of feeding; and I might add 

 that it seems quite the natural thing for the poultry novice to begin to learn to feed in 

 this way. The first thing he wants to know about feeding is how successful poultrymen 

 feed. Whenever he hears of unusually good, or even of average good results he wants to 

 know how those fowls were fed and housed that he may treat his the same way. 



In a general way we may say that the instinct which prompts him to do this is a safe guide. 

 In every matter in life we learn by doing as others do, and learn most by trying to follow those 

 who have done Itest. 



As in other matters, one who tries to adopt the ways of another, or to follow general 

 methods, does not always succeed. There may be various reasons for this; different conditions 

 of which he makes no account may require a different method; he may not properly under- 

 stand and apply the method ; or he may fail to adapt other features of his management to those 

 he tries to introduce, etc. There is no way of guaranteeing success by imitation of the success- 

 ful, but, on the whole, and in the long run, that is the way to achieve success, and, as 'I have 

 said, the instinct which prompts the beginner to find out and try to follow the methods of those 

 who have succeeded is a safe guide. Following it, he may advance more slowly than is agree- 

 able, and his progress may be marred by mistakes, but if he persists he wins out in the end. 



In his efforts to learn how to feed poultry in the simple natural way the novice is perplexed 

 by the lack of explicit, exact instruction on what seem to him the points where it is most 

 necessary that instructions should be very specific, and leave no chance for mistakes. Most 

 important of these is the que.-tion of quantity. He wants to know how much to feed in the 

 aggregate, and the exact proportions of the different foods used in a complete or balanced 

 ration. 



He finds no practical feeder willing to give him this information. If one can tell him just 

 how much he feeds to a given number of hens under certain conditions, he qualifies the infor- 

 mation by adding that this amount might not be just what the novice's flock of the same 

 number might require, and that it also might be necessary to somewhat vary the proportions 

 of the different articles in the ration. He must use judgment, feed according to results, con- 

 dition of the fowls, etc. 



To many novices this lack of definiteness is exasperating. They cannot understand the 

 necessity for it, and they conclude that the trouble is not that it is impossible to give specific 

 instructions, but that those who give them qualified instructions for feeding have not observed 

 closely enough to be able to be exact. 



