46 POULTRY. 



beariug 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 

 o-ettino; indoctrinated with the fact that our lands lack lime, and that, 

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

 present our wheat contains but about 45.2 in 1000 parts, of lime, cal- 

 cium (the metallic base of lime), magnesia, soda and phosphoric acid. 

 Providing this is sufficient for the osseous tissues, 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., should be administered only to the land, in crude state, 

 thus supplying the want in plants and fruits, they supplying it to ani- 

 mals which consume such fruits. Some years ago, the writer made 

 some experiments in administering limey substance to fowls. Haying a 

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

 tion of about half a pint to six quarts of meal, and fed to hens, while 

 laying, with most excellent results. Later, the writer has had his at- 

 tention called to the propriety of administering the egg-producing ma- 

 terial in the form of bone meal. . A correspondent writes as follows : 



"Last winter I procured two barrels of bone meal, intending to use 

 it for L'ish potatoes, and other garden crops ; my wife, however, appro- 

 priated some of it to manuring her roses in the flower garden, by sim- 

 ply strewing it on the surface of the ground around the bushes. The 

 fowls have free access to the garden, and were discovered eating the 

 meal very eagerly. Thinking it might be of service to them, we gave 

 them some for several weeks, and I assure you it was but a short time 

 before the eggs began to come in such numbers as we had never before 

 known I If a nest was broken up to prevent a hen from hatching, it 

 was but a few days before she was laying again, and thus it continues 

 until the present time. 



"One hen has taken possession of a barrel which has some bone meal 

 in it. and is laying in the meal. Whether she intends to lay the barrel 

 full or not, time alone will determine. 



"My- wife thinks that care and bone meal are great instittitions for 

 her poultry yard, and .very extraordinary in their effect ; but- as the 

 hens have an unusual amount of cackling to do, fears they may bring 



