POULTRY CRAFT. 103 



142, Methods of Feeding. In feeding method and regularity are all 

 important. There must be system. To the fowls it will make little differ- 

 ence which of the many good systems is used. To the feeder it may make 

 much difference. One system will be more convenient for this man, another 

 more convenient for that. The most common method among those who 

 have method is to give a mash in the morning; vegetables, cut bone, or a 

 light feed of grain at noon ; a full feed of grain in the evening. It is a good 

 system, though the fact that equally good results attend the use of other 

 systems, among them one just the reverse of this, disproves the very 

 plausible theory which persuaded so many to adopt it. The theory was that 

 the fowls, after their night's fast, needed a meal that would be quickly assimi- 

 lated, and that at night they needed a meal of hard grain slow of digestion. 

 Grain in the morning and mash at night, give just as good results. Results 

 as good as the best have also been obtained from grain mornings and evenings, 

 and mash at noon. It is by no means certain that as good results cannot be 

 obtained without a mash as with one ; but general experience indicates that it 

 is easier for most to get good results by using a mash feed once daily, than by 

 omitting it. The great value of the mash lies in the opportunity it affords to 

 more exactly regulate the ration. If the mash is not eaten eagerly, it is at 

 once clear that the fowls are over-fed, or that the other food contains much 

 too large a proportion of some substance prominent in the mash. To the 

 trained feeder, the mash is a gauge of the condition of his flock. Whatever 

 be the system adopted, it should be closely followed, and changed only for 

 some very good reason. One of the common mistakes in amateur feeding is 

 to make frequent radical changes of rations and of methods of feeding a 

 sure way to bring about digestive troubles, and ultimately destroy the useful- 

 ness of such fowls as are not killed outright. 



143. Cooking Food. Some feeders cook the mash, some scald (half- 

 cook) it, some merely wet it. It is commonly supposed that cooked food is 

 more digestible. As to that, there is no conclusive evidence. A significant 

 pointer is that the leading duck raisers have changed from cooked to wet food 

 for their ducklings. An objection to wet uncooked food is that it sours 

 quickly. If given in the first stages of fermentation, it does no harm ; but 

 too often the feeder, unwilling to throw it out, takes long chances on very 

 sour or mouldy food. Cooked food remains sweet much longer, and is there- 

 fore preferable when enough for several feeds is to be prepared at one time. 

 While good results are undoubtedly obtained with raw and partly cooked 

 foods, general opinion and practice favor the thorough cooking of mashes for 

 both fowls and chicks, and of the baked cakes many use for chicks. Whole 

 grains should be cooked only occasionally, by way of variety. For this a 

 fibrous grain, as oats, not palatable in its natural state, should be selected. 

 Cooked grain is, to all intents and purposes, a u soft" food. Too much soft 

 food in a ration impairs, through partial disuse, the digestive organs, which 



