POULTRY WORK. 205 



that it has been widely adopted by practical- poultrymen all over 

 the world. In fact it may now be said that this is the dominant 

 plan of housing poultry for laying purposes at the present time. 

 While the Station makes no claim that this idea is absolutely 

 original with itself, still the fact remains that at the Maine 

 Experiment Station this scheme of housing was first tried on 

 any extensive scale. 



DRY MASH FEEDING. 



Probably next in practical importance to the "curtain- front 

 system" of housing in the achievements of the Station in poul- 

 try management should stand its demonstration on an extensive 

 scale of the value of the dry mash system of feeding laying 

 birds. Here again the Station makes no claim of absolute 

 priority. It is a significant fact, however, that the dry mash 

 system of feeding which at the present time is probably more 

 widely used than any other system of feeding poultry by the 

 largest and most up-to-date poultry plants throughout the coun- 

 try, was very little used until after the appearance of the bulle- 

 tins of this Station detailing its success with the method. It 

 is, furthermore, a significant fact that anyone who will take the 

 trouble to read the correspondence and advice columns of the 

 leading poultry journals in this country will find that the Maine 

 Experiment Station formula for mixing the dry mash feed is 

 more often recommended by the editors of these journals than 

 any other. 



CRATE FATTENING. 



Another line of experimentation in poultry management, at 

 the Station which was at the time it was carried out pioneer 

 work for this country was the demonstration of the practical 

 value of crate fattening of chickens to be sent to market. 

 While crate fattening had long been practiced in Europe before 

 the Station did any work on the subject it was neither generally 

 known nor generally practiced in this country. The Station 

 clearly demonstrated the value of the method by its own experi- 

 ment. It cannot be doubted that the results of these experi- 

 ments have stimulated many American poultrymen to try crate 

 fattening for themselves, and in so far have contributed to the 

 commercial development of the poultry industry in this coun- 

 try. 



