Boiling Grain. 29 



for fattening fowls and feeding the youngest chickens, for 

 which it is the very best food. Fine " middlings/ 7 also 

 termed " sharps " and " thirds," and in London coarse 

 country flour, are much like oatmeal, but cheaper than the 

 best, and may be cheaply and advantageously employed 

 instead of oatmeal, or mixed with boiled or steamed small 

 potatoes or roots. 



Many writers recommend refuse corn for fowls, and the 

 greater number of poultry-keepers on a small scale perhaps 

 think such light common grain the cheapest food ; but 

 this is a great mistake, as, though young fowls may be fed 

 on offal and refuse, it is the best economy to give the older 

 birds the finest kind of grain, both for fattening and laying, 

 and even the young fowls should be fed upon the best if 

 fine birds for breeding or exhibition are desired. " Instead 

 of giving ordinary or tail corn to my fattening or breeding 

 poultry," says Mowbray, " I have always found it most 

 advantageous to allow the heaviest and the best ; thus 

 putting the confined fowls on a level with those at the 

 barndoor, where they are sure to get their share of the 

 weightiest and finest corn. This high feeding shows itself 

 not only in the size and flesh of the fowls, but in the size, 

 weight, and substantial goodness of their eggs, which, in 

 these valuable particulars, will prove far superior to the 

 eggs of fowls fed upon ordinary corn or washy potatoes ; 

 two eggs of the former going further in domestic use than 

 three of the latter." " Sweepings " sometimes contain 

 poisonous or hurtful substances, and are always dearer, 

 weight for weight, than sound grain. 



Some poultry-keepers recommend that the grain should 

 be boiled, which makes it swell greatly, and consequently 

 fills the fowl's crop with a smaller quantity, and the bird is 

 satisfied with less than if dry grain be given ; but others 

 say that the fowls derive more nutriment from the same 

 quantity of grain unboiled. Indeed, it seems evident that a 

 portion of the nutriment must pass into the water, and 

 also evaporate in steam. The fowl's gizzard being a 

 powerful grinding mill, evidently designed by Providence 

 for the purpose of crushing the grain into meal, it is clear 



