POULTRY EXPEIRIMENTS. Ill 



As the birds in each house laid about the same number of 

 eggs, it seems reasonable to suppose that the excess of food was 

 needed for maintenance in the colder house, where the birds 

 were in out-of-door temperature during the most of the day time 

 throughout the year. 



Although as many eggs were yielded by the birds eating less 

 food in the warmed house, the greater vigor and less losses 

 among birds in the open-front house more than compensated for 

 the excess cost of maintenance. 



In Lot 2, where the birds helped themselves at will to beef 

 scrap, they ate of it on the average, 14.7 tbs. during the year; 

 while in Lot i each bird received 8.7 tbs. of the scrap in the 

 mash. This leaves a difference of 6 tbs. in the amount of animal 

 food consumed by individuals in the two lots. Was this differ- 

 ence supplied by the materials rich in vegetable protein which 

 made up a part of the mash, viz., the linseed and gluten meals ? 



It will also be noticed that the quantity of oyster shell, bone 

 and grit eaten by the birds having a constant supply of beef 

 scrap was markedly less than when the supply of scrap was 

 limited to that contained in the mash. 



DRY Fe;eding. 

 On the first of last November we began feeding 550 April and 

 May hatched pullets wholly on dry food. They were in the 

 curtain-front houses with warm elevated roosting closets and in 

 flocks of 50, 100 and 150. At five o'clock in the morning the 

 flocks of 50 birds were given two quarts of cracked corn ; at half 

 past ten o'clock they had one quart of wheat and one quart of 

 oats. This dry material was all spread on the litter on the floor 

 but was not raked in. Along one side of the pens were feed 

 troughs with slatted fronts, in which was kept a supply of the 

 dry material of which the moist mash, before described, was 

 composed. These troughs were never allowed to remain empty 

 when the supply was exhausted. The dry mash was constantly 

 within the reach of all birds and they helped themselves at will. 

 Oyster shell, dry cracked bone, grit and charcoal were accessible 

 at all times. A moderate supply of raw mangolds and plenty 

 of clean warm water was furnished them. When thev were first 

 put upon this ration they were not acquainted with the drv mix- 



