34 POULTRY BREEDING IN 



PREPARATION OF THE FATTENING FOOD. 



Barley meal, or mixed in equal quantity with Indian 

 meal, made into a stiff paste with milk and water, and 

 seasoned with bay salt. 



This paste is then either made liquid, for liquid feeding, 

 or into pills, which should be dipped into milk and water 

 before they are given, so as to facilitate the swallowing. 



Experiments have proved that the seasoning poultry 

 food with bay salt produces the following advantages : 



1. To render the fattening of shorter duration. 



2. To produce, with the same quantity of food, more 

 flesh and fat. 



3. To give the flesh greater firmness and flavor, and to 

 the fat more compactness and a finer grain. 



Molasses or sugar mixed with the meal has also good 

 fattening qualities. The duration of fattening must much 

 depend on the condition, age, and health of the fowl, and 

 in this, the same as in administering the food, actual ex- 

 perience is the best teacher, as no rules can well be laid 

 down. 



POULTRY MANURE OR GUANO. 



With the ordinary way of breeding poultry, their valu- 

 able manure is lost, and we actually send ships to the 

 Pacific, and all over the world, to fetch those very drop- 

 pings of fowls which we despise to collect at home. Yet, 

 on a large breeding establishment, the collection of this 

 manure, so much sought by florists, will yield a consider- 

 able extra profit, which can safely be calculated at the 

 rate of fifty pounds per thousand fowls annually; but 



