278 POULTRY BREEDING 
known as milk-fed chicks and bring the highest prices in 
city markets. Some feeders add a little tallow to this 
ration during the latter half of the feeding period. The 
tallow should be raw beef suet chopped into small pieces 
and should be fed sparingly. If milk is not available in 
mixing this mash water may be substituted, but it is not 
as good. 
RATIONS, BALANCED.—A ration is the whole 
quantity of feed supplied in one day. This should be 
borne in mind because it is rather common to call a 
ration the feed supplied for one meal. A balanced ration 
is a ration so compounded of a variety of feeds that it 
meets all the requirements of a fowl in the way of nutri- 
ents, so as to promote symmetrical growth, maintain 
health and vigor and, in the case of laying hens, supply 
sufficient nutrients to enable them to produce eggs to the 
utmost limit of their capacity. 
While no ration will make a good layer of a hen that 
is naturally a poor layer, it is quite possible to feed a 
ration so badly compounded that it will be impossible for 
a good layer to which it is fed to produce eggs to the 
limit of her capacity. When we use the term “feeding 
for eggs” we mean feeding a ration that will supply all 
the nutrients needed by a hen to produce eggs to the 
extent of her limit, be she a good layer or a poor one. 
In considering the balanced ration it is perhaps best to 
inquire into the essential elements of such a ration before 
going into the composition of it and the manner of com- 
puting it. In this connection we quote Prof. James E. 
Rice of the New York College of Agriculture : 
“Fowls do not always use the nutrients in the same 
proportions. For instance, it is to be expected that if 
fowls are kept in very cold quarters, or if they are com- 
