I20 MAINE AGRICULTURAL, EXPERIMENT STATION. I9I3. 



Other ration formulae for fowls are given in all books on 

 poultry husbandry and in bulletins published by agricultural 

 experiment stations in the various states and by the Department 

 of Agriculture in Washington. 



In feeding fowls in flocks it is important, in accordance with 

 the principle of individuality, to select the birds which are to 

 make up a flock so that they will be as uniform a lot as possible 

 in respect to size, stage of development, etc. Careful grading 

 in this way in putting birds into the laying house pays in the 

 egg basket. The more nearly uniform in structure and habit 

 the component units of a flock are, the more will the effect of 

 individuality be minimized. 



In conclusion it may be said that while the poultry business 

 is not a gold mine, nor a get-rich-quick scheme, it is a legitimate 

 business. When properly conducted it will pay liberal interest 

 on the investment of capital and labor. The keynote to 

 success in it is to begin in a very modest way, and only 

 enlarge the plant, if it be enlarged at all, as the fundamental 

 principles of breeding and management are thoroughly mas- 

 tered. Chickens are not machines. They are living creatures. 

 A poultry plant is not a factory. It partakes much more of 

 the nature of a girl's boarding school, with a strong leaning on 

 the part of its inhabitants towards suffragette doctrines. Poul- 

 try management is a biological problem, and to be successful 

 must have due regard to fundamental biological principles. 



