410 REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 



cumstance, the rule of experienced feeders to give them a full 

 allowance of food from their birth to their maturity. 



Fowls are, of all birds, the most easy to feed, every alimen- 

 tary substance agreeing with them; and they are seen the 

 whole day long incessantly busied in scratching, searching, 

 and picking up a living. No seed, however minute, can es- 

 cape the piercing looks of a fowl. The fly most rapid in flight, 

 cannot screen itself from the promptitude with which she darts 

 her bill; while the worm which comes to breathe at the surface 

 of the earth, has not time to shrink from her glance it is im- 

 mediately seized by the head and drawn up. Fowls that are 

 thus feasted on seeds, worms, insects, and every thing else that 

 may be found in a close and diligent search in the yard, barns, 

 stables, and cow-houses, only require, in general, a supplemen- 

 tary feed, which is best distributed to them in the morning at 

 sunrise, and before sunset in the afternoon. This meal is pre- 

 pared in the following manner, according to MAIN. 



On the day before, boil in the washing of dishes such pot herbs as the season 

 affords; let them be mixed with bran, and then drained. On the following 

 day this paste is warmed up and given to the fowls; after they have eaten of 

 it, give tnem some of the siftings of wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, or Indian 

 corn bruised or cracked, and such crumbs and refuse matters as generally 

 collect in the kitchen. The evening's meal should be similar to the morning's. 



Indian corn, wheat, barley and oats are all employed in the 

 feeding of poultry; but to fatten them on these articles, or even 

 to keep them for the product in eggs, will prove an uphill 

 business. It cannot be done to any extent with profit; and 

 hence it is that so little attention is paid by our farmers to the 

 raising of poultry. Poultry, all know, will feed on any kind 

 of farinaceous substance, and the better the quality of the food, 

 the more will they profit by it. It should be the object, there- 

 fore, of those who engage in the business of rearing poultry 

 on a large scale, to study sound economy in feeding them, 

 otherwise they will sustain loss. But there is no necessity for 

 this great expense. Boiled potatoes, with the addition of a 

 very small portion of Indian or barley meal, and with an occa- 

 sional feed of cracked or boiled corn, will not only keep the 

 flock in good condition, but will in a very short time produce 

 a rapid degree of fatness^. The knowing ones, as they are 

 called among our farmers, who deal largely in poultry, fatten 

 them altogether in this way. It is a saving of at least seven- 

 tenths over the old method. 



The cramming of poultry consists not only in feeding them 

 with all the great variety of substances which they are known 

 to consume, but in thrusting them down their throats. The 

 ingredients employed are made into little balls, and the fowls, 

 kept in coops, are crammed night and morning. In this way 



