162 



THE POULTRY-BOOK. 



measures of each of the six common sorts of grain to be boiled 

 till they burst, and the increase in bulk of each sort was as 

 follows : Four pint measures of oats, thus prepared, filled seven 

 pint measures ; of barley, ten ; of buckwheat, fourteen ; of 

 Indian corn, above fifteen ; of wheat, a little more than ten ; 

 and of rye, nearly fifteen. 



Rice is stated to swell more by boiling than any of these six 

 sorts, but it is rarely given to poultry, except for fattening. 

 There is a popular notion that it tends to whiten the flesh. 



In order to determine whether the boiling changed the pref- 

 erence of fowls for any of the particular sorts, M. Reaumur 

 made experiments similar to those already described, varied in 

 every possible way. The fowls were furnished with two, three, 

 four, five and six, different sorts ; at one time all the compart- 

 ments of the feeding-box being filled with burst grain, each dif- 

 ferent from the other, and at others, each sort of grain filled 

 two of the compartments, one of them having nothing but boiled, 

 and another nothing but dry grain. All that could be collected 

 from these repeated experiments was, that the greater number of 

 fowls prefer boiled grain to raw, though there are many of them 

 which show a preference to the dry grain on certain days, and 

 no permanency could be discovered in the preference shown for 

 any sort of burst grain. The same fowls which one day pre- 

 ferred boiled wheat would on other days make choice of buck- 

 wheat, Indian corn or barley, and sometimes, though seldom, 

 of rye ; but rye, either cooked or raw, is manifestly the least 

 favorite sort of grain. 



The conclusion, then, derived from these experiments, is 

 abundantly fortified, that we may choose for fowls that sort of 

 grain which happens to be cheapest or most convenient, avoid- 

 ing rye, when necessity does not compel its use. 



Reaumur deemed it necessary to make other experiments, in 

 order to settle the question as to the economy of feeding poultry 



