PRACTICAL FEEDING OF POULTRY 



method a considerable part of the green feed is wasted. 

 Free range or large yards kept in grass furnishes ideal 

 green feed and should be handled so that the grass is not 

 killed out but is kept short, making the blades tender and 

 palatable. Alfalfa and clover are especially desirable 

 for such yards, as the fowls will consume large quantities 

 of these grasses. Such grass ranges or yards furnish suf- 

 ficient green feed as long as the grass is green and tender 

 but should be supplemented with other green feeds during 

 the winter months and also during the summer months in 

 sections in the South where the grass dies out or becomes 

 tough and wiry. 



The crops to grow in the poultry yard or to be used as 

 soiling crops for fowls are oats, wheat, kale, rape, peas, 

 rye, buckwheat, and vetch. Oats are the staple crop 

 adapted to most all conditions and which can be grown 

 any time during the normal growing season. This is the 

 grain most commonly used and generally a small amount, 

 about 4 pounds to the acre, of rape seed is added to 4 

 bushels of oats or wheat. Dwarf Essex Rape is the best 

 variety to use, and if sown alone use 15 pounds of seed 

 to the acre. Several sowings of oats can be made in a 

 poultry yard during the season, and the hens turned into 

 the yards when the oats are 3 to 4 inches high. Wheat 

 may be used in place of oats, or a mixture of oats and 

 wheat makes a good combination with the rape seed. Can- 

 ada peas and oats are a good mixture to grow early in the 

 season. Buckwheat and cow peas are good mid-summer 

 grains to use for this purpose, while rye, vetch and winter 



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