112 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I905. 



ture in the troughs and ate of it sparingly, but in three or four 

 days they were using as much of it as at any later time until 

 they got to laying heavily. When the feeds of cracked corn, 

 wheat and oats were given, the birds were always ready and 

 anxious f-or them and would scratch in the litter for the very 

 last kernel before going to the troughs where an abundance of 

 food was in store. 



It was very evident that they liked the broken and whole 

 grains better than the mixture of the fine materials ; yet they by 

 no means disliked it, for they helped themselves to it, — a mouth- 

 ful or two at a time — whenever they seemed to need it, and 

 never went to bed with empty crops so far as we could discover. 

 They apparently did not like it well enough to gorge themselves 

 with it, and sit down, loaf, get over fat and lay soft shelled eggs, 

 as is so commonly the case with Plymouth Rocks when they are 

 given warm morning mashes in troughs. 



Some of the advantages of this method of feeding are that 

 the mash is put in the troughs at any convenient time, only 

 guarding against an exhaustion of the supply, and the entire 

 avoidance of the mobbing that always occurs at trough feeding 

 when that is made a meal of the day, whether it be at morning or 

 evening. There are no tailings to be gathered up or wasted as 

 is common when a full meal of mash is given at night. The 

 labor is very much less, enabling a person to care for more birds 

 than when the regular evening meal is given. 



We cannot give the results of a full year's feeding in this way, 

 as we have practiced it only from the first of last November to 

 the close of June. The number of hens lost during the winter 

 has been less than ever before, even when they were kept in the 

 same style of houses. We can ascribe this to no other cause than 

 that the birds did not overload with food at any time. We have 

 never had so many eggs laid during the winter months by a like 

 number of hens, but that may be due to better breeding, or to the 

 open-front houses which the birds occupied. 



During the 31 days of March the 550 birds consumed on the 

 average, per bird, the following materials, viz. : Cracked corn, 

 2 lbs.; wheat, 1.09 tbs. ; oats, .81 lbs.; mash, 5.68 lbs.; shell, 

 .52 lbs.; bone, .25 lbs.; grit, .31 lbs.; mangolds, 3.30 lbs. 



