\ 



POULTRY EXPERIMENTS. IO9 



mash was made quite dry, and rubbed down with the shovel in 

 mixing, so that the pieces of clover were separated and covered 

 with the meal. Cracked bone, oyster shell, clean grit, and water 

 were before them all of the time. Two large mangolds were 

 fed to the birds in each pen daily in winter. They were stuck 

 onto large nails which were partly driven into the wall a foot 

 and a half above the floor. Very few soft shelled eggs were laid 

 and so far as known, not an egg has been eaten by the hens dur- 

 ing the last five years. 



The records of several years' feeding show that from 50 to 

 55 pounds of the dry meals, not including the clover leaves of 

 which the mash was made up, were eaten by each hen per year. 

 The quantity of grain fed in the litter was the same every day, 

 winter or summer. The quantity of mash was variable, being 

 all they would eat in an hour at the close of the day. They ate 

 more in cold than in warm weather ; also considerably more 

 when they were laying heavily than when they were yielding 

 few eggs. 



The feeding above described was with hens in a house kept 

 warm enough by hot water pipes, so that the temperature was 

 above the freezing point at all times. The amount of food 

 required by the birds kept in this house for several years was 

 always less during the winter season, than where birds were 

 kept in the colder houses. 



In addition to the 50 to 55 lbs. of mash, the hens in this house 

 have averaged each year 18.2 lbs. wheat; 6.4 lbs. cracked corn; 



5.8 lbs. of oats ; 5.9 tbs. oyster shell ; 3.2 tbs. dry poultry bone ; 



2.9 lbs. mica grit; and 40 tbs. mangolds. The straw for litter 

 has averaged 36 tbs, per bird. 



The birds fed and housed as above described have averaged 

 laying about 150 eggs each. 



CRACKED CORN AND BEEE SCRAP SUBSTITUTE FOR THE MOIST 



MASH. 



Last year 300 April and May hatched pullets were put in six 

 pens in the open front house and the birds in all pens were 

 selected so as to have the lots equal in quality. One hundred 

 and fifty of the birds were fed on dry grains in the litter during 



8 



