. / CHAPTER XIII 



RATIONS AND METHODS OF FEEDING 



A ration. In poultry feeding, the term "ration" refers particu- 

 larly to the composition of the daily diet of a flock. The quantity of 

 the ration is sometimes stated for flocks of given numbers, but the 

 numbers in flocks and the sizes of birds are so variable that deter- 

 minations of quantity must be made separately for each case. By 

 the daily ration is meant, usually, the food given. If the birds 

 are in yards large enough to supply them with green food and 

 with some 'animal food, the ration given might be wholly of grain 

 and the ration eaten might still contain all the green food that the 

 birds would eat and enough animal food to make the failure of the 

 keeper to supply that kind of food a matter of slight consequence. 

 In such a case the ration given is a grain ration ; the ration eaten 

 is a mixed or varied ration. Poultry wholly dependent on their 

 keeper for food require that varied rations be given them. They 

 may subsist for long periods on one kind of food or on a ration 

 giving little variety, but variety in the forms of food is one kind 

 of quality in a ration, and a ration lacking this is as insufficient as 

 one that lacks the required quantity of any nutritive element. 



A balanced ration. In the usual technical sense of the phrase, a 

 balanced ration is a ration in which nitrogenous and non-nitroge- 

 nous elements are properly proportioned to meet the requirements 

 of the creature considered and the purpose for which the ration is 

 used, that is, a ration having the correct nutrient ratio. In the 

 broadest practical sense a balanced ration is one in which all 

 properties perceptibly affecting nutrition and results are in equi- 

 librium. A ration may have the right proportions of principal 

 nutrients and yet carry too much fiber or too much mineral matter ; 

 or it may be too concentrated and " burn " the digestive organs ; or 

 it may be so bulky that the greatest quantity the creature could 

 consume would not provide sufficient nourishment. The propor- 

 tions of hard and soft foods must also be balanced in some rations 



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