16 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Professor Graham. From the available experience, for the 

 quantity for general preventive work, about 1 teaspoonful of 

 commercial acid to 2 gallons of drinking water. Either earthen- 

 ware or wooden drinking articles should be used. You could 

 not use the acid and metal very long or you would be in 

 trouble. 



Mr. Brown. Would a flock of hens get sufficient drink 

 through the winter from snow alone? 



Professor Graham. From our experience, yes, because we 

 have numerous flocks of hens that are laying heavily in the win- 

 ter time that don't get anything to drink except snow for weeks 

 at a time. They may get some cooked vegetables or substances 

 containing water, but, for example, in this open-front house I 

 showed you we sometimes have a week at a stretch when the 

 thermometer is between 10 and 29 below zero, and the ther- 

 mometer inside the house showing from zero to 7 below. Now, 

 you take an ordinary pail of water and set it down there and 

 it is ice before you get out, almost. So there are weeks and 

 weeks when they don't get anything but snow. 



Professor Brooks. I would like to ask the speaker whether 

 he has ever had any complaints of the quality of eggs from 

 feeding cabbages. 



Professor Graham. We have gone fairly thoroughly into 

 the matter, and even from a high-class retail trade in eggs we 

 have never had any complaints as to flavor, even when the 

 hens had all the cabbages they could eat. I cannot say the 

 same when the hens were fed rape, scorched or musty grains 

 or onions, however, for these almost always aft'ected the flavor 

 unfavorably, and our customers noticed it. 



Professor Brooks. I don't want to occupy the time that 

 belongs to the speaker, but I do wish to say that a number of 

 years ago I compared two flocks of hens of similar breeding 

 and similar housing in every respect, and fed similarly except 

 as regards vegetable food. The eggs from the two lots were 

 sent under numbers to a number of families, and the house- 

 keepers were discriminating. There was never any failure to 

 indicate that the eggs from the hens which were fed with the 

 cabbage were superior to the others. They spoke of thsir 

 sweetness and fine flavor; they did not recognize the cabbage. 



