RATIONS AND METHODS OF FEEDING 



2 3 I 



wheat, 3 parts; corn, 2 parts; hulled oats, I part, kept before chicks in shal- 

 low trays containing a little bran. 



Third to seventh day : For the bread and eggs was gradually substituted a 

 well-baked johnnycake (fed twice daily, all that the chicks would eat) made as 

 follows: corn meal, 4 pounds; infertile eggs, il pounds (i dozen); sour milk, 

 2 pounds ; baking soda, 5 level teaspoons ; grain in litter two or three times 

 daily, bran in separate dish. 



One to three weeks: Johnnycake and grain as above; bran, 8 pounds, beef 

 scraps, 2 pounds, in place of clear bran. 



Three to six weeks : Grain as above ; one feed of johnnycake daily. During 

 the early part of the period the johnnycake was mixed-with equal parts of the 

 cracked grain ; gradually the cake was discontinued, and in place of the bran 

 and beef scrap dry mash was given : corn meal, 100 pounds ; wheat middlings, 

 100 pounds; beef scrap, 100 pounds; wheat bran, 200 pounds; fed in hop- 

 pers always accessible. Green food was available at all times. 



25. After the sixth week chicks given the above ration were changed to the 

 folio wing fattening ration : a mixture of ground hulled oats, I part (by weight) ; 

 corn meal, I part ; ground buckwheat, I part ; moistened with sour milk and 

 fed twice daily. Grain in litter (one feeding daily), cracked hulled oats, 

 i part ; cracked corn, I part ; cracked wheat, I part. Grit and beef scrap fed 

 in hoppers. 



Ration 24 was the most satisfactory of seven rations compared for the 

 period, the others being (a] cracked grain and bran ; (b] cracked grain ; (c] 

 cracked grain and dry mash ; (</) dry mash ; (e) and (f) wet mash. It is an 

 excellent ration, but as good results are usually obtained on a simpler system 

 without the changes according to age. The ration given from one to three 

 weeks would probably have given as good or better results not only for the 

 first six-weeks period but also through the second six-weeks period, when the 

 fattening ration 25 was used. The report says that the chicks started on 

 ration 24 did not like the change, though some of the others on poorer rations 

 during the earlier period ate the fattening ration readily. Ration 24 is a very 

 good standard ration, adapted to all ordinary purposes in feeding and quite as 

 effective when simplified, as for the first to the third week. As fed during the 

 last three weeks it could readily be changed to a moist mash ration by wetting 

 the ground grains and feeding the beef scrap separately, or by reducing the 

 scrap to about thirty or forty pounds. 



26. Experimental rations for laying hens (pullet year}}- 



(a] Grain mixtures as follows (parts by weight) : 



July 28 to Sept. 8. i cracked corn, i wheat, i oats 



Sept. 9 to Dec. 8. 3 cracked corn, 4 wheat, i oats 



Dec. 9 to Jan. 18. 4 cracked corn, 3 wheat, i oats 



Jan. 19 to Feb. 16. 3 cracked corn, 3 wheat, i oats, i buckwheat 



Feb. 17 to July 27. 4 cracked corn, 3 wheat, i oats 



1 Bulletin No. 249, Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station. 



