26 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



The number of meals per day best consistent with real 

 economy will vary from two to three, according to the size 

 of the run. If it be of moderate extent, so that they can in 

 any degree forage for themselves, two are quite sufficient, 

 and should be given early in the morning and the last thing 

 before the birds go to roost. In any case these will be the 

 principal meals ; but when the birds are kept in confine- 

 ment they may have, in addition, a scanty feed at midday, 

 provided the quantity be deducted from the other meals. 



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

 The birds have passed a whole night since they were 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 any- 

 thing but beneficial. But, for the very same reason, at the 

 evening meal grain forms the best food which can be sup- 

 plied ; 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" 

 is opposed to the practice of some, who give grain for the 

 breakfast, and meal, if at all, at night. It is certainly 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. 

 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 



