252 THE SMALL COUNTRY PLACE 



watch must be kept for hawks, crows, owls, skunks, 

 weasels and stray cats, to see that the chickens are not 

 taken during the day and have a safe place at night. 



Production of Eggs. 



For the production of eggs even more care is required 

 than for the production of poultry. In preparing the 

 pullets for laying the cockerels should be removed from 

 the pens except one to each twelve to fifteen pullets. 

 If possible give them full range and feed a variety of 

 grains, scraps, and fresh bone, with an abundance of 

 grit, oyster shells, and charcoal where they can readily 

 get at it. Light, dry and airy quarters must be pro- 

 vided and kept scrupulously clean. If the pullets are 

 kept in close quarters fresh green feed of some kind, 

 grass, weeds, cabbage, or other wastes from the garden 

 must be supplied, and some kind of litter on the floor in 

 which whole grains may be scattered. 



As with the production of poultry, the practice of 

 feeding the dry or wet mash varies, with perhaps the 

 advantage in favor of the former. The dry mash is 

 made by mixing ground oats, cornmeal, shorts, gluten 

 meal, and scraps in equal quantities and placing this 

 mixture in slatted troughs or feeders where the fowls 

 can get at it at all times. 



The wet mash is made of more or less of the above 

 grains often using boiled potatoes, beets, carrots, etc., 

 with the mixture. As far as careful comparison of the 

 two methods has been made, the dry mash has given 

 the best results especially in houses inclined to be 

 moist, and the labor is greatly reduced. The time of 

 feeding the wet mash varies, too, with many, the most 

 general practice being to feed hot mash in the morning. 

 But the results of some careful experiments made by 

 experiment stations indicate that the fowls assimilate 



