FOOD FOR POULTRY. 31 



liberty to do through the wires, two and a half inches 

 apart. On the whole, however, the best vessel for a few 

 fowls is that shown in Fig. 10. The spreading bottom 

 prevents the vessel from being overturned, and the straight 

 sides and the top make it impossible to scratch food out. 

 Such a vessel needs no cover, and also makes a good and 

 simple water pan. 



Where the fowls have a field to run in they will require 

 no further feeding till their evening meal of grain. Barley 

 is good, and in summer this may be occasionally changed 

 with oats ; in winter, for the reasons already given, Indian 



Fig. 9. Fig. 10. 



corn may be given to some breeds every second or third day 

 with advantage. Buckwheat is very similar in chemical com- 

 position to barley, but better, and certainly has a stimulating 

 effect on the production of eggs. We would never omit 

 purchasing a good sack of this grain when ^ possible, and 

 have a strong opinion that the enormous production of eggs 

 and fowls in France is to some extent connected with the 

 almost universal use of buckwheat by French poultry- 

 keepers.* Wheat was formerly too dear to be employed, 

 unless damaged ; and if the damage be great it had better 

 not be meddled with ; but of late years it has been, to the 

 farmer's sorrow, a cheap grain, and when sound or little 

 injured is a most valuable food both for chickens and 

 fowls. Next to oats it is probably the best grain of all. 



* It is a curious fact that buckwheat used to be largely grown in what 

 are now the chief poultry-breeding counties of Surrey and Sussex. 



