148 POULTRY BREEDING 
This mixture is moistened with water cnough to make 
it fall apart when squeezed in the hand and released. 
While the rolled oats and egg mixture was fed in tin pans 
with low sides, the moistened mash was fed in light 
troughs with low sides. Young chicks like moist mash 
better than that which is dry, and they will eat more of it 
in a short time. There is no danger from a properly- 
made mash twice a day, and as the grain is ground the 
young birds can eat and digest more of it than of all 
coarse feed. This is important and should be taken ad- 
vantage of at the time when young chicks are most sus- 
ceptible to rapid growth, but development must be mod- 
erate for the first two weeks. The digestive organs must 
be kept in normal condition by the partial use of hard 
feed, and the gizzard must not be deprived of its legiti- 
mate work and allowed to become weak by disuse. Proper 
feeding insures vigor at maturity. 
About the time the chicks are six weeks old the broken 
grains are discontinued and the two feeds of hard grain 
on litter each day are begun, wholly of screened cracked 
corn and whole wheat. Only corn and wheat that are 
sound and sweet should be used. This method has al- 
ways produced very satisfactory results, if the chicks 
have not been given too much scratch feed, and if the 
ground feed has been removed immediately after the 
meal was completed. The sole objection to this method 
is the labor of mixing the eggs and rolled oats, making 
the mash and removing the feed dishes at the proper 
time. 
Method 2.—In Method 2 eggs are not used but fine 
beef scrap is substituted. The mash instead of being fed 
moist is fed in its dry condition. Early in the morning 
Mixture 1 is given on litter as in Method 1. At 9 o'clock 
