THE BEST POSITION AND THE BEST FOOD. 153 



A plentiful supply of fresh water is necessary 

 to the health of all animals and birds, and 

 especially is this necessary with poultry. Open 

 vessels and saucers cannot be recommended, 

 because the water is soon made dirty by the 

 fowls treading in it, and leaving their feathers in 

 it. An inexpensive block-tin cylinder, with a 

 lip attached at the bottom of the cylinder, is a 

 good system. No sooner is the lip emptied of 

 water than it fills itself again from the cylinder 

 that is above it with a fresh supply, and the 

 cylinder is so constructed that while the lip is 

 always kept filled, the water will not run over. 



How Fowls Digest Food. 



A fowl takes in its food by its beak, thence 

 it passes down its gullet into its gizzard or 

 stomach. In its stomach the food is partly 

 broken up or digested, and lastly it passes into 

 the intestines, where digestion is completed. 

 The blood then takes up and circulates this 

 digested food, and builds it into the fowl's bone, 

 fat, tissue. 



In the gullet there is a large bag called a crop. 

 Large quantities of food are taken in and 

 stored in the crop, but no digestion takes place 

 there, the food being simply stored and softened 

 by the bird's saliva. The bird then digests the 

 store in its crop at leisure. 



