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ber of materials available for this purpose. Use something that 

 is a good absorbent, easily scratched about by the hens, fairly 

 cheap, and the more valuable it is as a fertilizer the better. Two 

 or three inches of sand spread over the floor, and over this a 

 few inches of straw, make an ideal litter. Loam is fine and 

 dusty and packs too easily. Baled shavings are often used 

 with good results, but they are easily broken and mixed with 

 the sand. Leaves are satisfactory for a time, but soon become 

 fine and lose their value as litter, but should be used when 

 possible. 



Feeds and Feeding. 



Grains and Scratch Feeds. 



A scratch feed, so called because the hens are obliged to 

 scratch in the litter for this portion of the ration, may be com- 

 posed of a single grain or a mixture of several grains. Those 

 most commonly used for this purpose are corn, wheat, barley, 

 oats and buckwheat, and are given in the order of their im- 

 portance as poultry feeds. At the present time corn is one of 

 the most expensive grains we have, but in normal times the 

 cheapest. It is usually cracked before feeding in order to give 

 the hens more exercise in finding it. If cracked corn is not 

 sifted before feeding, the mealy portion will be lost in the litter. 

 Before the war we recommended a scratch feed containing 2 

 quarts cracked corn, 1 quart wheat and 1 quart oats, but wheat 

 became so high in price and so scarce that the Food Adminis- 

 tration prohibited its use in poultry feeds in amounts greater 

 than one-tenth of the mixture. This resulted in a meeting of 

 representatives from the eastern colleges, who adopted a war 

 scratch feed composed of 5 pounds cracked corn, 1 pound wheat, 

 2 pounds oats, 2 pounds barley. This was in December, 1917. 

 Since that time some grains have become very scarce and others 

 are unobtainable, so that at the present writing the poultrymen 

 are compelled to use almost any combination of grains, and the 

 proportion of each depends entirely upon price and availability. 

 We must not be too particular about proportions these days. 

 Due to the fact that mash is cheaper than scratch feeds, a 



