202 PROPER FOOD FOR FOWLS. 



be sparingly given, as the fowls are so fond of them, that if given 

 abundantly, it will prevent them taking their usual food. 



I have experimented to a considerable extent to ascertain the 

 quantity of grain a given number of fowls will consume in a 

 year, when no other food is furnished. The result is, that one 

 half bushel of corn, and the same of oats, or their equivalent 

 in other grains, will keep each fowl in good condition. I now 

 refer to our common breeds. Probably some of the large 

 breeds will require more ; but I have found that some particular 

 breeds, the Brahmas for instance, consume so much grass in its 

 season, that the same food that is necessary for one of our com- 

 mon native fowls, is sufficient for one of that breed. The cost of 

 keeping each fowl, according to my experience, is from fifty to 

 sixty cents a year, according to the price of grain in this vicinity. 

 At the West, it would not be over twenty-five cents in many 

 places. One gill a day for each fowl, is as much as they will 

 consume, under ordinary circumstances. There are two hun- 

 dred and fifty-six gills in a bushel, consequently this estimate 

 falls short of the previous one, of a bushel to each fowl ; but 

 allowing for some imperfect grain, and some wastage, we can 

 safely put the quantity at one bushel per head, if fed on corn 

 and oats chiefly. If fed on other, and more nutritious grains, 

 such as wheat and barley, they would not consume quite so 

 much in quantity, but the cost would be the same. Mr. 

 Bement, in his work entitled " The American Poulterer 's Com- 

 panion? gives the result of an experiment that substantiates 

 my estimate. He says : 



I was curious to ascertain the quantity of each sort of grain which 

 a given number of fowls, when abundantly supplied, would consume, 

 and for that purpose, I confined one cock and seven hens of the Poland 

 variety. The first feed I gave them was one peck of Indian corn, 

 which they consumed in eleven days. I then fed them one peck of 

 oats, which they ate in six days. The next feed was the same quan- 

 tity of barley, which lasted them seven days. The like quantity of 

 Wheat, they consumed in ten days. The same quantity of millet 

 lasted them eight days, and the like quantity of wheat-screenings 

 they devoured in seven days. During this trial, they had no other 

 food, except a few boiled potatoes, 



In the case of the feeding of a peck of corn to eight fowls, 

 which was consumed in eleven days, it was at the rate of a 

 bushel a head, per annum. Thirty- three pecks, or eight and 

 one quarter bushels, would have been required to feed these 

 fowls one year, had they eaten with the same appetite the 



