92 PO UL TR T- CRAFT. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Foods and Feeding. 



115. Corn is, of all grains used as poultry food, the cheapest and most 

 generally available. It is probable that American fowls are fed more corn 

 and corn products than of all other grain products combined. This is cer- 

 tainly true of the farm flocks and small flocks. In the area which produces 

 a large surplus of poultry, corn is the almost exclusive grain food. In the 

 practice of the best special poultry farmers it is not so much used, but still 

 is fed more generously than the balance of published opinion against its use 

 would indicate. It contains carbonaceous matter in excess of the require- 

 ments of all fowls in warm weather, of fowls in confinement with moderate 

 exercise, and of fowls warmly housed in winter. Under the opposites of 

 these conditions corn and corn products may be the principal part of the 

 grain diet : provided, always, that the fowls have all the vegetable and 

 animal food they need, and care is taken to prevent the over-eating of corn 

 in warm weather. There is danger in feeding corn heavily. There is 

 danger in heavy feeding of any grain palatable to fowls. With whole 

 corn the danger is greatest, because the fowls get, with so little exercise, so 

 much food of a kind which gives under ordinary conditions some surplus of 

 heat energy which, if not used in searching for more food, is stored up as 

 fat : finally to the detriment of the fowl. 



The greatest abuse of corn is in the failure of those who use it freely with 

 good results in cold weather to reduce a little the amount of corn in the 

 ration for hot weather. Knowledge of the widespread disorders growing out 

 of this neglect, has led some authorities on feeding to place so much stress on 

 the risks of feeding corn that many are afraid of it, and use so sparingly that 

 they reduce their profits as much by over-caution as the others do by careless- 

 ness. From one extreme to the other is a " far cry." It is as easy to learn 

 to feed corn right as to learn to feed right. Considering that corn always 

 must be a staple article of poultry food, it is as necessary for nine out of ten 

 American poultry keepers to learn to feed corn right as it is that they should 

 make poultry profitable. 



The forms in which corn foods are on sale are : 



WHOLE CORN (generally shelled, but in some places also on the cob). 

 May be fed freely as an evening meal to growing stock large enough to eat 

 it ; to fowls in cold quarters or on range ; may be a part of the evening food 



