256 POULTRY BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT 



food requirements of the fowl, he is master of the situation 

 and will be able to formulate rations that will give him the 

 most profitable returns. 



The Price of Foods will largely govern choice of a 

 ration. Profitable poultry production is not a question of 

 the best foods any more than it is a question of the cheapest 

 foods. That is to say, the best foods from the standpoint 

 of composition and palatability may produce more eggs 

 or more meat but may produce less profit than other foods 

 that are not so valuable, pound for pound, on account of 

 their lower cost. The feed bill may be so high that the 

 poultryman is robbed of his profits. No one kind of food 

 is so essential that the poultryman must feed it no matter 

 what its price may be. If this one fact were thoroughly 

 understood and acted upon it would save probably millions 

 of dollars to the poultry-keepers of the country. 



Rations. With this understanding a few sample rations 

 for egg production are here given. The weights of feed 

 are in pounds, and are figured on the basis of one average 

 hen for one year. It will be understood that these amounts 

 will vary, first, as the size of hen varies ; second, as produc- 

 tion varies, and third, as the climate or temperature varies. 

 The amounts given approximate closely the amounts re- 

 quired in egg production. The safe rule to follow is to in- 

 crease or decrease these amounts daily as demanded by the 

 fowls. There must be no stinting of food if a steady pro- 

 duction of eggs is to be maintained. 



The choice of animal food is left to the feeder, 50 pounds 

 skim milk or buttermilk, 10 pounds cut bones, and 5 pounds 

 beef scrap being estimated as of about equal value. The 

 same is true of green food, 15 pounds of green alfalfa or 

 clover being equal in value to 20 pounds kale. This does 

 not exhaust the list of animal food nor of green food. It 

 may be, for example, that fish scrap is more available in 



