235 



is in position to take interest in improved methods and new dis- 

 coveries. Until a farmer becomes impressed with the fact that the 

 poultry business is a great big business, and worthy of his attention, 

 it is idle to talk to him or bombard him with bulletins, in regard to 

 keeping better fowls, constructing better houses, or feeding more in- 

 telligently. 



Mongrel Methods and Mongrel Stock. 



(Prof. W. A. Lippincott, Manhattan, Kan.) 



The great difference between wild hens that lay two dozen eggs 

 a year and the well kept farm fiock that averages twelve dozen, has 

 come about through systematic care and attention on the part of the 

 farmers. 



The great trouble with the average farmer's way of raising 

 chickens is, that in the case of their wild ancestors, the chickens have 

 to raise themselves. They are tolerated rather than raised. In the 

 same way that poor folks generally have poor ways; poor stock gen- 

 erally gets poor care. Mongrel methods go with mongrel stock and 

 the mixed flock accompanied by roost-in-a-tree, and eat-in-the-corn- 

 crib, and hit-or-miss breeding methods, is very much in evidence on 

 on the general farm. The way to improve this is to induce the farmer 

 to buy some standard bred hens that he can be as proud of as he is 

 of his team. Then he will give them such care as he does his team. 



Misuse of Corn. 



(Dr. A. A. Brigham, Brookings, S. D.) 



One great fault in raising poultry in the mid-west is the 

 of corn." This splendid grain food is of immense value as a finish- 

 ing and fattening food and brings blessings when used as a heating 

 food in winter, but it is not a growing food or a summer food when 

 unbalanced by protein nutriment. Fed exclusively, or almost ex- 

 clusively to fowls (especially to Plymouth Rocks or Asiatics, and 

 particularly after the first laying season), it tends to overfatness 

 and inactivity, finally resulting in death by apoplexy in numerous 

 cases. 



The remedy is simple. Use milk, meat and alfalfa, clover or 

 vetch to balance the starchy corn. With every five pounds of starchy 

 irrnin food, feed one pound of beef scraps or equivalent protein food. 

 An almost perfect daily winter ration, dry feeding, for laying Leg- 

 horns, one hundred pounds live weight (twenty-five to thirty hens), 

 is made by using: 



Corn, three pounds; wheat, two pounds; beef scraps, one pound; 

 clover hay, one pound. 



The clover also makes a good substitute for green food. It is 

 a simple matter. The grains supply mostly starchy and some oily or 

 fatty nutrients, which by oxidation in the body keep up the animal 

 heat. The beef scraps are about half protein or muscle-making 

 nutrients. Both kinds of nutrients are required to grow and fatten 

 chickens and produce eggs. 



