No. 4.] POULTKY FEEDING. 415 



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 claimmg 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 ecjually 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 

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

 be considered besides quantity, quality 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 less 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- 

 plicated 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 artifi- 

 cially will often fail to thrive on the same ration that naturally hatched 

 and reared chicks on the same premises are given with wholly satis- 

 factory results. Why is it? It is because in the case of the artificially 

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

 unnatural and abnormal condition. This is usually a condition result- 

 ing 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 incubator to make 

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

 wrong condition during incubation — be incapable of living. The 

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

 attention some years ago by an exceptionally expert, careful and in- 

 telligent poultry man. From two large machines set at the same time 

 he had taken remarkably good hatches, — about three hundred from 

 each machine. The eggs were the same, one lot of eggs having been 

 divided between the two machines. The conditions after the chicks 



