POULTRY. 225 



furnish fowls that are being fattened, with a liberal supply 

 of corn ; and those that are intended for laying, with little or 

 no corn, but with oats, wheat screenings, barley, and some 

 animal food, as scraps, young veal, &g. Also give them oyster 

 shells pounded fine, or lime in some other form, and allow them 

 to ramble a portion of each day at least, to eat grass, &c. It 

 is a well known fact to all successful poultry raisers, that a hen 

 fed exclusively on corn, while she Avill fatten readily, will lay 

 very few eggs. The reason is obvious. Corn is composed 

 largely of starch, which is a fat producing element, and is defi- 

 cient in the nitrogenous substances of which the egg is mainly 

 made up. Hence, the hen fed on corn, lays on fat, but does 

 not yield eggs, simply because the corn does not contain the 

 requisite material. And, on the other hand, the hen which is 

 fed on oats, animal food, etc., which yield a large per cent, of 

 nitrogenous substances, will generally lay freely, because she 

 has the requisite " where-with-all " for that purpose. But she 

 will never become very fat, unless corn or some other fat 

 producing feed be added to the diet. It is not desirable, how- 

 ever, that a laying hen should be very fat. A flock of poultry, 

 fed in the above manner, will produce fat or eggs, just as the 

 owner desires, and cannot help themselves. It has been deter- 

 mined, by experiment, that fowls which have feed by them all 

 the time, consume less than when fed at intervals, and your 

 committee would therefore recommend a constant supply. 



If the policy which we have indicated above be adopted, we 

 are confident in the belief that the fowls will be at all times i'vQe 

 from disease, and that all who give poultry rearing a fair trial, 

 will find the results to be satisfactory. 



J. B. Brown, Ckairman. 



CoxcoKD, September, 1860. 



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