CHAP. vi. POULTRY FEEDING. 685 



the food supplied should be well balanced, or there may be great 

 waste, and for the same reason there should not be too much or too 

 little. 



The three principal groups of food constituents are 1, Albuminoids 

 or nitrogenous compounds, or flesh-formers; 2, Carbohydrates, or heat- 

 givers ; 8, Fat. These are necessary for fowls (except the carbo- 

 hydrates), and are found largely in flesh and eggs. In deciding upon 

 the food it is necessary first to consider that which is obtained naturally. 

 Where fowls are in absolute confinement everj'thing must be sup- 

 plied, but when they are given full liberty they obtain a considerable 

 quantity of natural food, by which is meant worms, slugs, seeds, and 

 lime, and the amount of this must largely determine both the quantity 

 and nature of that furnished artificially. No soil which does not contain 

 a supply of worms is suitable for poultry. Well-drained, heavy land is, 

 therefore, the best. The artificial foods are grain, meal, meat, and 

 vegetables, and as no one food is all-sufficient, these must be varied 

 according to circumstances. Oats form the most perfect food for laying 

 hens. Barley should not be given alone, as it is too rich in heat-givers 

 but deficient in albuminoids. Barley-meal mixed with middlings makes 

 an excellent soft food. Wheat, slightly deficient in fat but strong in 

 albuminoids and heat-givers, is good for layers, small wheat being the 

 best. Maize, very deficient in albuminoids, but highly charged with 

 carbohydrates and fat, is a bad food. Buckwheat deficient in fat, 

 otherwise good ; suitable for layers and breeders. Potatoes are useful 

 to take up meal of any kind. The best summer foods are oats, wheat, 

 and buckwheat ; and for winter, barley and buckwheat, with a very 

 little maize. The best foods for laying hens are oats, wheat, buck- 

 wheat, and a portion of barley ; and for fattening, barley and maize, 

 whilst rice, if mixed with tallow scrap, is an excellent food for this 

 purpose. A system which has largely come into vogue of late years 

 is the giving of grain in litter of straw or cut chaff, more especially 

 for birds in confinement, as it ensures exercise in seeking for food 

 an important point in egg production. 



In his ""Poultry Breeder and Feeder," Mr. W. Cook says: 



" Perhaps, however, the most important, and very often the most 

 neglected, thing that poultry in confinement require is a supply of grit, 

 for without it they are unable to digest or grind their food. A miller 

 cannot grind his corn without stones, and it is the same with poultry, 

 and if they fail in getting a supply of small sharp stones (which the 

 greater part of the grit should be composed of) they suffer in health, 

 as these things are to poultry what teeth are to human beings birds 

 digest or grind their food with small stones or grit, while we masticate 

 ours with our teeth. 



" When I have had poultry suffer in health and die, I have opened 

 them and often found an absence of these necessaries, and very often when 

 fowls mope about and do not care to eat their food, it is simply for 

 want of these small stones, and frequently when in this state, they do 

 not care "to pick up the small stones, &c., in which case some should be 



