POULTRY. 187 



producers nor consumers are fully aware of the magnitude of 

 the interest and product. The demand for both the meat and 

 eggs of fowls is steady, and the supply is never in excess of it. 

 There is no branch of the farmer's interest where science can 

 be applied with better pecuniary results than poultry raising. 

 We believe that all failures are traceable either to blindly 

 divorcing nature from science, or to a non-application of science 

 in the management of fowls. 



All developments of permanent value are only possible by 

 conforming to the special law of the quadruped or biped sought 

 to be improved. We think our poultry men would do well to 

 observe closely the law of nature in even the feeding of poultry. 

 Let them not lose sight of the fact that the fowl is physically 

 constituted to live on whole grains, and that to ignore or disre- 

 gard this necessity of the fowl is to invite failure in some if not 

 in many points. All domestic fowls require green herbage, 

 and, if deprived of it for any considerable time, they inevitably 

 decline. Hens, during the laying period, require animal sub- 

 stance in some form, and it is absurd to expect a good crop of 

 eggs unless this condition is supplied. In the agricultural 

 papers we find a good deal bearing on the subject of supplying 

 the shell-producing substances ; and although too much stress 

 can scarcely be laid on this point, we think that science will yet 

 demonstrate the impropriety of presenting limey material in a 

 crude state. Scientific farmers and others are getting indoctri- 

 nated with the fact that our lands lack lime, and that, conse- 

 quently, there is a deficiency of that material in our grains. At 

 present our wheat contains but about 45.2, in 1,000 parts, of 

 lime, calcium (the metallic base of lime), magnesia, soda and 

 phosphoric acid. Providing this is sufficient for the osseous tis- 

 sues, there is still too little to make the shell of the egg ; but the 

 question is, how shall we remedy the deficiency ? We argue that 

 if the land is deficient in phosphates, lime, salt, &c., they should 

 be administered only to the land in crude state, thus supplying 

 the want in plants and fruits, they supplying it to animals which 

 consume such fruits. Some years ago, the writer made some 

 experiments in administering limey substance to fowls. Having 

 a quantity of air-slaked lime, it was mixed with the dough in 

 the proportion of about half a pint to six quarts of meal, and 

 fed to hens, while laying, with most excellent results. Later, 



