FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 145 



spices whatever should be used, as they tend to intensify the color of the head parts for a time 

 only, and to diminish it in proportion thereafter. It is also advisable to use a small quantity of 

 bone meal in this mash every morning, and twice a week a little refined fish meal, say one- 

 twelfth or so. This is a forcing food, and but little should be employed unless it is desired to 

 bring females toward a laying state. Clover meal should be used once or twice a week in this 

 morning mash. It is preferable to cut clover, as the latter is too bulky in the crop, and often 

 clogs the passage to the digestive organs. The fowls should be kept scratching until noon, 

 when the green food should be fed. Everyone has his preference; the writer prefers cabbages, 

 as they are the greenest and tenderest thing to be procured in the winter months. Green food 

 can be placed before them in two ways it may be chopped, and a certain amount fed every 

 day, or it may be placed before the fowls in an unlimited supply. If it is furnished without 

 restriction, it must be kept constantly before the fowls, otherwise they are liable to eat too 

 much when a new allowance Is supplied. Between three and four o'clock the fowls should be 

 given the heartiest meal of the day. It should consist of either wheat or barley, and should 

 be well covered with litter. The exact time that it should be given depends upon the length of 

 the day. The object Is to give the fowls an hour or an hour and a half of exercise before 

 they go to roost. Considerable can be accomplished by a selection of grains. If the birds are 

 too fleshy, more barley and less wheat should be used for the evening feed. If the weather is 

 very cold, and the birds in a normal state of flesh, a small handful of corn may be allowed each 

 one just before it jumps upon the perch for the night. With fowls that are poor in flesh it is 

 well to use more wheat and but little oats and barley for a scratching feed. Corn should be 

 fed for the evening feed to birds in this condition. 



"Young birds of the heavier breeds which are somewhat under weight should not be forced to 

 over-exercise, (in such cases, increase of weight is the main point) ; but a moderate amount of 

 exercise will prove advantageous in these cases, also. A great variety of food should be sought 

 for such birds. The mash should have a greater proportion of corn meal, and a mixture of 

 wheat and barley with a small proportion of oats should be used during the day to make the 

 birds exercise. Broken sweet crackers of all sorts may be used in connection with corn meal 

 and bran as a soft food to good advantage. In cold weather sunflower seeds and buckwheat in 

 small amounts are good agents in securing the desired object. The last two are also very instru- 

 mental in procuring that lustre so desired by the best exhibitors. Beef tallow is very good to 

 give a lustre to the coat. Too much is not beneficial to the general health of the bird, but a 

 piece one-half the size of an English walnut every second day will answer the purpose and 

 prove a great treat to the birds. 



" The quarters for the birds during this preparation should be all that quarters for any fowls 

 should be dry, sunny, well ventilated, but free from drafts. It would be well to clean them a 

 little oftener than usual. No chance should present itself for the birds to soil their plumage, as 

 the natural has more life than the washed plumage. To that end the droppings should be 

 removed a little oftener than usual, and no soft or green foods left where the plumage of the 

 birds can come in contact with them. 



"It is hardly necessary to say that these birds must be kept absolutely free from lice, and in 

 particular cases like these nothing in my opinion answers as well as a thorough dusting once a 

 week with lice powder. 



" The males and females should for obvious reasons be conditioned in separate compart- 

 ments, if not in separate houses. The males usually do better with one to three females, of 

 course only those which are of no consequence for exhibition purposes. The females may be 

 conditioned together to the number of six or eight, but when more than that number are placed 

 in the same pen all do not seem to thrive. 



"Grooming is sometimes resorted to in order to give the bird a sleek appearance; one which 

 has had plenty of fresh air and exercise seldom requires much, however. The best implements 

 for such work are the hands or an old silk handkerchief. The feathers should be rubbed very 

 lightly as they show the effects of the least wear very quickly. 



"The mention of any tonics, washes, drugs, and what may be termed 'brilliantines,' has been 

 carefully avoided, as the course here described will do all that those things will do, and all that 

 is necessary in forty-nine cases out of fifty. Nothing is absolutely required except the every 



