1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



631 



straining of a liquid through unsized paper,] 

 This would be called by logicians an unwar- 

 ranted co?iversion of' a proposition ; and when 

 applied to another subject, would be about as 

 follows : — [The term goose, and the names of 

 animals in general, are, in grammar, common 

 nouns ; therefore, a common noun is a goose.] 



We do not find that the term, ^7<er, has any 

 exclusive chemical signification ; but if it is en- 

 titled to any special definition, it should be that 

 of "a piece of felt or fulled woolen cloth," as 

 its etymology implies. 



It IS quite proper to inform ignorant farmers 

 that chemists think tliat unsized paper makes a 

 superior filter, and that they generally use 

 such an article for filtration ; but the fact 

 should not be concealed fi-om such of our 

 brother farmers as may not have a chemical 

 text-book, or even a common dictionary at 

 hand, that filtration, as a chemical term, is, 

 by an eminent chemist and author defined as — 

 "The process of separating precipitates, by 

 straining, or passing the fluid through any 

 porous substance." I. B. Hartwell. 



Wilkinsonville, Mass., Sept. 23, 1867. 



HOW FOWLS AND BIRDS GRIND 

 THEIR FOOD. 



Fowls have no teeth to grind or masticate 

 their food with, and the best they are able 

 to do with it at first, is to pick it to pieces and 

 swallow it whole. Kernels of grain are swal- 

 lowed whole by them, and as they are sur- 

 rounded with a tough pellicle or skin, which 

 the juices of the stomachs of animals will not 

 readily dissolve or digest, they could obtain 

 no nouiishnient at all from grain, if this tough 

 pellicle were not broken. 



Let horses, cattle or people swallow kernels 

 of grain, or ripe seeds of fruit, whole, and 

 they will pass off in the ordure unbroken, and 

 mo.Nt of them will not lose their vitality, in 

 consequence of such a process, and such grain 

 would afibrd no more nourishment than so 

 many smooth gravel stones. 



Now, if we disf^ect the gizzard of a fowl of 

 any kind, we find a lot of small gravel stones, 

 which are usually the hardest kind of flint, 

 granite or sand stone. Surely here; is a pocket 

 edition of Farm Grist Mills. The mystery is, 

 where do fowls find such little flint like stones, 

 when their abode is on farms, the soil of which 

 is a complete mold or muck, destitute of gravel, 

 or when they are confined in close quarters for 

 month after month, during winter, for exam- 

 ple, or in a grass yard in warm weather, these 

 little gravel stones are very important articles 

 with fowls — quite as important as the teeth of 

 ruminating animals. 



Fowls swallow their food, broken or not, 

 and it enters the crop or first stomach, and re- 

 mains in it until it has become softened, more 

 or less, when a small quantity at a time, just 

 as grain runs into a grist mill, is forced into 

 the gizzard, among the gravel stones. This 



gizzard is a strong, muscular stomach, and 

 plays night and day, when there is a grist to 

 grind, similar to a bellows, contracting and 

 expanding, thus forcing the gravel stones into 

 the grain, and breaking it to fragments, and 

 triturating the whole mass ; after which it is in 

 a suitable condition to be quickly digested. 

 Of course, these little stones will become very 

 dull, after having been in operation for a 

 month or two, and the gizzard, like an eco- 

 nomical miller, throws them out of doors, and 

 demands a better set ; and if they are not fur- 

 nished of course the grist is not half ground, 

 and of course more than twice as much food is 

 necessary to sustain life, and form eggs, as 

 would be required were it well ground ; and 

 of course the eggs of fowls would cost double 

 in this case that ihey would in another with the 

 same food. This suggests the importance of 

 supplying fowls and birds in cages with plenty 

 of sharp gravel stones, and of having their 

 food bruised or ground fine before they eat it ; 

 and it suggests 



The Importance of allowing Fowls to Feed 

 Themselves. 



When fowls have access to grain all the time, 

 we see them eat in the morning only a few 

 kernels at a lime, and after an hour or so, they 

 will take a few kernels more, and thus they 

 pass the entire day by eating a little at a time, 

 and very often. 



The philosophy of their eating so frequently 

 and but a little at a time, is, the food has a 

 sufficient time to become softened in the crop 

 before it passes into the gizzard, and it has 

 sufficient time to be thoroughly ground and 

 digested ; whereas, when fowls are not allowed 

 to have access to their food, but are fed once 

 or twice a day, they become very hungry, and 

 swallow as much as their crops will hold at one 

 feeding. Now for several hours, no food will 

 be softened sufficiently to pass into the gizzard, 

 consequently their grist mill must stand idle. 

 Now the moistened grain swells and distends 

 the crop of the fowl, and it feels by no means 

 comfortable. Shortly all the food in the crop 

 is in the proper condition to be ground, and 

 the result is, that it is forced through the giz- 

 zard with so much rapidity that it is not half 

 ground, and, therefore, cannot be half digest- 

 ed ; and if it is not half digested, of course not 

 half the nutriment, or egg-producing material, 

 can be extracted from it. Nor is this the 

 greatest drawback attending feeding fowls 

 only once or twice a day. When a fowl fills 

 its crop at one feeding, before the food can 

 possibly get out of it, it begins to heat up, 

 and derangement and ill-digestion follow, very 

 much as is the case when we fill our stomachs 

 as full as they can be crammed. 



The way to feed fowls, and particularly 

 those that are laying, or being fattened, is to 

 allow them to have free access to food at all 

 times. In this way they can always supply 

 the demands of their stomachs and grinding 



