FEUDING CHICKENS FOR GROWTH. 95 



Financial Results. 



The forty-five birds weighed 221.9 pounds at the beginning 

 of the test. If, they had been dressed at that time and had 

 shrunk at the same rate as they did when they were slaughtered 

 they would have yielded about 177 pounds of dressed meat, 

 worth at thirteen cents a pound $23.01. They ate 321 pounds 

 of mixed meal costing $3.40, and 60 gallons skimmed milk worth 

 $1.20, altogether $4.60, which taken from the increased value 

 of the chickens leaves $3.71 as the net gain, — not accounting for 

 labor — or an average of 8.25 cents for each chicken. 



Although the chickens employed in this test had been growing 

 during the five weeks in which their mates in the first test had 

 been undergoing fattening, they had not improved in condition 

 sufficiently to sell at a better price per pound than at the com- 

 mencement of the first test. 



THE EFFECT OF GREEN FOOD. 



To study the effect of green food in fattening chickens, the 

 following trial was made with twenty-four pure-blooded 

 Plymouth Rock chickens that were one hundred and forty days 

 old at the commencement of the test. They were confined in the 

 small coops, described on page 89, four in each coop, and all 

 fed for four weeks on the mixed meal and milk porridge twice 

 each day. 



The birds in coops 1 and 2 received no green food. Those in 

 coops 3, 4, 5, and 6 received no green food during the first and 

 second weeks, but during the third and fourth weeks they were 

 given all the finely chopped green rape they would eat once a 

 day. They did not consume as much of the rape per day as they 

 had previously while living in the large yards, where they 

 ate it voraciously. The quantity of porridge eaten by them was 

 not noticeably greater or less when the rape was supplied. The 

 gains made while the birds were supplied with green food were 

 hardly as great as while confined to the porridge alone, but the 

 difference was not very great. 



The following table gives the details of the experiment. 



