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moisten it for the birds myself than to allow them to do so. I 

 do not believe the bird can moisten a large handful of dry mix- 

 ture after it enters the crop so evenly as I can before it goes 

 there. Then if the mash is about the temperature of the bird's 

 body when it is fed (or, on cold mornings, a little higher) she 

 will not have to use up her heat in raising it to that temperature. 



FEED ALL THE HENS WILL EAT UP CLEAN. 



I feed all the mash the hens will eat up clean in a reasonable 

 time say from 15 minutes to half an hour. Then I go through 

 the pens and empty what is left (if anything )back into the kettle, 

 to be fed the next day. At 1 1 o'clock I make a round of the pens 

 to collect the eggs and look after the birds. On this trip I take 

 with me green food of some sort mangel wurzels, cabbages, 

 apples or onions and leave in each pen the amount that experi- 

 ence has shown me the birds will eat up clean. About two o'clock 

 in the afternoon I make the round of the pens again. I have told 

 you that in each pen I keep a male and 12 females, and on this 

 trip in the early afternoon I throw down in the deep litter one 

 quart (dry measure) of grain of some kind. The three grains I 

 feed are wheat, cracked corn and oats. I study to give variety. 

 On a mild afternoon I feed all oats or all wheat, on a moderately 

 cold afternoon, about half cracked corn and about half wheat or 

 oats, and on a very cold afternoon, cracked corn alone. When 

 I get home from making pastoral calls it is generally dusk and the 

 hens have gone to roost. Before supper I go through each pen to 

 see that the birds are all right for the night. I empty the water 

 dishes, collect any eggs that may be in the nests, 

 pause a moment in each house to see that the birds 

 are breathing right (no colds nor bronchitis) and occa- 

 sionally feel of the crops to see if I am feeding enough. 

 If the crop is comfortably full neither distended on the one, hand 

 nor nearly empty on the other I conclude that the grain ration 

 is about right so far as quantity is concerned. 



STUDY VARIETY. 



I have given the ingredients, of my standard morning mash, 

 lut I vary these ingredients from time to time. I don't want the 

 same thing for breakfast every morning, and I don't believe my 

 birds do. About twice a week I substitute gluten meal or linseed 

 meal for green ground bone or meat scraps ; and once in a while 



