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fact and the extreme developments of the "balanced ration" fad. 

 Thus, also, it is an unquestionable fact that mashes, as many poul- 

 try keepers make and feed them, are injurious to fowls; but there 

 are differences in mashes, differences in fowls and differences in people. 

 Thus, again, it is certain that many people have injured their fowls 

 by feeding too much corn, or feeding it too carelessly; but again it is 

 true that many others feed corn to advantage. The fault in most 

 exploitations of foods and methods is in claiming too much for them; 

 and in most condemnations of foods and methods, condemning their 

 use when it is the abuse of them that should be avoided. 



The more the question of the feeding of poultry is studied, and the 

 more carefully one investigates the results of different methods and 

 follows equal results back along very dissimilar lines of feeding, the 

 more will he be impressed with two facts: — 



First, that equally good results are obtained by many different 

 methods. 



Second, that the same method does not invariably give the same 

 results. 



The logical conclusions from these facts are, that there are many 

 equally good methods of feeding, and that there are other factors to 

 be considered besides quantity, cjuality and composition of the food. 



These conclusions need cause no confusion of mind, and probably 

 would not, if it were not for that prevalent habit to which allusion 

 has been made, — of seeking always to establish a peculiar relation 

 between every result and some single agency or cause. That habit 

 makes people avoid the logical conclusions altogether, seek to find 

 some other solution of their difficulty; and in the mental confusion 

 which follows they imagine that the matter of feeding poultry is com- 

 pUcated and difficult, when the truth is that it is simple and easy if 

 the poultry keeper will only let it be so, and if he will also maintain 

 as near an approach to natural conditions as is necessary for the proper 

 exercise of natural functions. 



It is a matter of common observation among poultrymen that 

 chicks hatched and reared by the natural method will usually thrive 

 on almost any kind of feeding, while those hatched and reared arti" 

 ficially will often fail to thrive on the same ration that naturally 

 hatched and reared chicks on the same premises are given with wholly 

 satisfactory results. Why is it? It is because in the case of the arti- 

 ficially hatched and reared chick the diet so often has to be adapted 

 to some unnatural and abnormal condition. This is usually a condi- 

 tion resulting from improper temperature or lack of ventilation, either 

 in the incubator or in the brooder. 



To illustrate: we know that it is possible for an iiu'ul)a(or to make 

 a good hatch, and yet the chickens — through sonic undiscovered 

 WTOng condition during incubation — be incapable of living. The 

 most marked instance of this kind of which I know was called to mv 



