258 POULTRY BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT 



Under farm conditions, however, where fowls have free 

 range and find a good deal of animal food in the fields, 30 

 pounds should be sufficient. They should have access to it at 

 all times. The amount they will consume will be governed 

 in part by the amount of insects found in the fields. By 

 making the milk into cottage cheese and feeding the fowls 

 all they will eat of it, they will get all the animal food re- 

 quired. Milk when closely skimmed has very little fat, 

 while bones and beef scrap have a large amount of fat ; it 

 can, therefore, be fed to advantage in rations that in other 

 respects are richer in fat than would be necessary or ad- 

 visable where cut bones are fed. Good fresh cut bones fed 

 regularly will give better results than either milk or beef 

 scrap, but the cost is sometimes prohibitory, and there is 

 danger of the meat not being fresh. "Where milk is used as 

 animal food it should be supplemented with dry or ground 

 bone that will furnish the necessary mineral matter that is 

 lacking in the milk. 



It is not very material what kind of green food is fed. 

 The important thing is to give the fowls all they will eat. 

 Alfalfa and clover have about equal feeding value. In 

 winter, alfalfa and clover leaves make good green food. 

 Kale has a higher percentage of water than green alfalfa 

 or clover or vetch. 



The table gives five rations, numbered from 1 to 5. No. 

 1 is rated as the poorest and No. 5 the best. Corn is the 

 only grain in ration 1. In No. 2 wheat is fed in place of 

 corn, but in other respects they are the same. Number 2 

 is placed ahead of No. 1 because it has slightly more pro- 

 tein. Both of them are deficient in the egg-making material, 

 protein. Though not an ideal ration by any means, either 

 1 or 2 would be an improvement on many rations fed on 

 the farms, but for heavy egg production neither has enough 

 protein. No. 3 is better than Nos. 1 or 2 because it has a 

 variety of grains and a little more protein. Nos. 4 and 5 



