PROPER SYSTEM OF FEEDIXO. 21 



last thing before the birds go to roost. In any cas-3 these will 

 be the principal meals ; but when the birds are kept in con- 

 finement they will require, in addition, a scanty feed at midday. 



The first feeding should consist of soft food of some kind. 

 The birds have passed a whole night since they wore last fed ; 

 and it is important, especially in cold weather, that a fresh 

 supply should as soon as possible be got into the system, and 

 not merely into the crop. Now, if grain be given, it has to be 

 ground in the gizzard before it is digested ; and on a cold 

 winter's morning the delay is anything but beneficial. But, 

 for the very same reason, at the evening meal grain forms the 

 best food which can be supplied ; it is digested slowly, and during 

 the long cold nights affords support and warmth to the fowls. 



A great deal depends upon this system of feeding, which, 

 we are aware, is opposed to the practice of many, who give 

 grain for the breakfast, and meal, if at all, at night. We 

 believe such a system to be usually adopted from indolence ; 

 it is easier to throw down dry grain in a winter's morning than 

 to properly prepare a feed of meal, which is accordingly given 

 at night instead. Fowls so treated, however, are much more 

 subject to roup and other diseases caused by inclement 

 weather than those fed upon the system we recommend a 

 system not only in accordance with theory and our own 

 experience, but with that of the most successful breeders. Let 

 the sceptical reader make one simple experiment. Give the 

 fowls a feed of meal, say at five o'clock in the evening; at 

 twelve visit the roosts and feel the crops of the birds. All 

 will be empty ; the gizzard has nothing to act upon, and the 

 food speedily disappears, leaving with an empty stomach, to 

 cope with the long cold hours before dawn, the most hungry 

 and incessant feeder of all God's creatures ; but if the last feed 

 has been grain, the crop will still be found partially full, and 

 the birds will awake in the morning hearty, strengthened, and 

 refreshed. 



