90 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I9OO. 



The meal mixture employed was made up by mixing 100 

 pounds corn meal, 80 pounds wheat middlings, 50 pounds fine 

 ground oats, and 40 pounds of fine animal meal. They were 

 fed all of the porridge they would eat, twice each day. The 

 troughs were removed and cleaned in half an hour after the com- 

 mencement of each meal. They were constantly supplied with 

 water. 



Feeding was commenced August 24th and continued until 

 September 28th — thirty-five days. The birds were weighed at 

 the end of each week, at the same hour so that they might be 

 equally empty of food at each weighing. 



They consumed 477 pounds of meal and 84 gallons of 

 skimmed milk. The forty chickens weighed at the commence- 

 ment of the test 147.9 pounds and at its close 237.1 pounds and 

 had gained 89.2 pounds, an average of 2.23 pounds per chicken 

 live weight. The quantity of the dry meal required to produce 

 a pound of gain was 5.94 pounds. 



On the day that the feeding of the cooped birds was com- 

 menced, twenty of their mates were put in a house nine by eleven 

 feet in size, with an attached yard twenty feet square. The- 

 yard was entirely bare of anything that would serve as green 

 food. 



They were fed, during the thirty-five days, on the same grain 

 mixture with milk, as those confined in the small coops. The 

 twenty birds weighed at the commencement of the test 66.6 

 pounds and at the close 116.0 pounds, making a gain of 49.4 

 pounds ; an average of 2.47 pounds to each. The quantity of 

 the dry meal required to produce a pound of gain was 5.52- 

 pounds. In these tests greater total and individual gains and 

 cheaper flesh productions were secured from the birds with 

 partial liberty than from those in close confinement. The labor 

 was less in caring for the yarded birds. The cooped birds were 

 very quiet and did not appear to suffer from confinement. 



When dressed, all of the carcasses in both lots were even, well- 

 formed and handsome. The results indicate that there is no 

 advantage in close confinement, but that rather greater gains 

 and cheaper production result from partial liberty. That our 

 success with the small coops was as good as that of the for- 

 eigners is shown by the reports of the English and Canadian 



