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your fowls to devour all the filthy oftal that is thrown 

 from your kitchen. They will eat it if they can get it. 

 But good clean food means good clean eggs and poultry 

 for your table or the market. 



The most important time to give special attention to the 

 feeding of your poultry is when they are chickens. I 

 have seen many a brood of fine fowls, well kept and well 

 fed, but giving no eggs in return, for the simple reason 

 that their diet was entirely neglected when they were 

 chickens. If you would have your fowls commence drop- 

 ping their eggs when they are six months old, and con- 

 tinue through the year with short intervals of rest while 

 moulting, then you must commence to feed them on egg- 

 producing food when they are very young, so that when 

 they are six months old, their whole body will be "perme- 

 ated with egg-producing properties, and then they cannot 

 help laying a bountiful supply of rich, clean eggs. Our 

 rule is, not to give our chickens any food at all till they 

 are two days old. Then we give them a small feed of 

 boiled eggs cut fine, or bread crumbs, if convenient. 

 Soaked crackers are good. We follow this by giving them 

 a feed of dough made of oat and corn meal mixed. We 

 use no other meal on our premises but oats and corn ground 

 together in equal parts. We have used it for hogs, horses 

 and hens for more than thirty years, and consider it the 

 best. When our chickens are from four to five weeks old, 

 we begin to give them whole grain, or broken wheat and 

 oats. Our regular bill of fare is as follows : In the 

 morning, a warm mash of meal and cooked vegetables ; 

 at noon, a good generous feed of oats ; and at night, give 

 them all the whole corn they will eat. We like to have 

 them go to their roosts with a full stomach. One of the 

 most important articles of diet for poultry is vegetables. 

 They need, and will devour a very large amount of vege- 



