54 California Poultry Practice 



good breeders and layers. Then you can commence to put the flesh 

 on the cockerels. 



Now chicks with such a start can stand a lot of spoiling in the 

 way of food, and in putting broilers in shape for market, most of the 

 food must be mashes. Vary the kind. every day and feed only what 

 they will eat up in fifteen minutes. All kinds of waste vegetables can 

 be used in making these mashes, but care must be taken that they are 

 not too sticky. Never leave them before the chickens to sour, as 

 that would rob the chicks of appetite and cause diarrhoea. Ground 

 oats, barley meal, wheat bran, middlings and ground com can be used 

 to fill up any or all of the mashes, but it is better to use just one or 

 two at one time and change off. Always add a little salt, some char- 

 coal and beef scrap in the mashes. By mixing these ingredients in the 

 dry mash stuff before adding water, you get them more evenly dis- 

 tributed. 



A dish or sour milk once in a while will help keep up the appetite, 

 so if at all handy, serve it. 



Green feed galore can be served and that will keep up both appetite 

 and health. The animal food should be increased with the age and 

 size of the chicks. 



When yellow legs and skin are desired, put ten per cent of cotton 

 seed meal in the mash, more than that will make the mash sticky. 



For milk-fed chickens, which bring the best price in the market 

 where they appreciate good things, the feed should all be mixed with 

 sour milk or buttermilk. This' is usually made the consistency of 

 porridge and then the fowls are not given any water to drink. Sweet 

 skim milk does just as well if it can be procured and if a little care is 

 taken, the appetite can be held for three weeks, but that would be the 

 limit. Fowls fed after this manner are usually in good condition to 

 start with and this is the best way to finish them. They are fed in 

 troughs and are given no exercise, so that the meat is soft and tender 

 with a delicious flavor that nothing else but milk can impart. 



During the last week of fattening milk-fed poultry add a table- 

 spoonful of melted tallow for each chicken to be fed. Do this twice 

 a day and you will have the very best of milk-fed poultry. The 

 troughs and all feeding utensils must be kept strictly clean, and the 

 chickens kept in slatted pens so that all droppings fall down below on 

 the ground and the chickens are clean and wholesome. Too much 

 cannot be said about cleanliness in this matter, for filthy feed troughs 

 soon rob even a chicken of its appetite, and when the appetite fails, 

 the birds may as well be killed as they will not put on any more flesh. 



Broilers that have been raised four weeks as breeders or layers 

 should be raised, and four weeks with less exercise and plenty of 

 green feed and dry food are in prime condition and about the right 

 age for making milk-fed chickens. They will also stand the cramming 



