POULTRT-CRAFT. 95 



oats as readily as in wheat. It is important for the feeder to know the quality 

 of the oats he is using. It is not an unusual thing for those who are careless 

 about this to feed bushel after bushel of worthless oats nothing but husks 

 and seeing them left by the fowls, conclude that the fowls are over-fed; 

 then other feeds are reduced, and the fowls, possibly, half -starved before the 

 error is detected. A very few poultry keepers have reported good results 

 from a diet mainly of whole oats. By most they are fed as a light (noon) 

 feed, or in a mixture of grains. Good oats are perhaps the best whole grain 

 to balance a heavy corn ration. If steamed occasionally they can be fed 

 oftener, for fowls eat them more readily ; but when a mash is fed regularly, 

 cooked grains should not often be given in addition. The feeder can save 

 work and add variety by occasionally substituting steamed oats for the 

 regular mash. 



HULLED OATS make a very good cheaper substitute for oat meal for those 

 who like a good proportion of oat meal in a ration for chicks. They may also 

 be used in mixtures of grain for old fowls. 



GROUND OATS (coarse, unsifted), are used in mashes and in cakes for 

 chicks. When fed to very young chicks it is better to sift out the hulls. 



OAT MEAL and ROLLED OATS though sometimes highly recommended 

 for young chicks, are little used by poultrymen. A few use one or other of 

 them freely for the first week or ten days ; and a very few continue their use 

 occasionally after that period. They are costly foods. When fed freely oat 

 meal often causes bowel disorders. The feeder who is after the most profit will 

 hardly think of paying high prices for articles specially prepared for human 

 food, when as good results can be (and are) obtained by the use of cheaper 

 articles, and of oats in cheaper forms. 



118. Barley is not as generally kept in stock for poultry food as the 

 grains previously mentioned, and is sometimes hard to get where the demand 

 for "chicken feed" is light. Fowls do not like it as well as wheat. Its 

 feeding value, as determined in practical use, and also by analysis, is nearly 

 equal to that of wheat. It contains a little more fiber, and is therefore less 

 palatable. The hull seems to be the objectionable feature to the fowls 

 for hulled barley - they eat freely. Barley contains a little more bone and 

 muscle forming food than wheat, and is usually enough lower in price to be 

 a much cheaper food. 



BARLEY SCREENINGS have a larger proportion of nutriment than well 

 developed grains have. 



BARLEY MEAL has about the same properties as wheat middlings. 



119. Rye. The general condemnation of rye as a poultry food seems to 

 be based on very limited experiences in feeding it. In some parts of Europe 

 it is the " staff of life," just as wheat is here and in England, and is used much 



