1000 POULTRY. 



So a well-balanced food must contain, In proper proportions, 

 nitrogen, carbon, and mineral, or flesh-forming, warmth-giving, and 

 bone-making elements. Oats finely ground, hull'and all, is the best 

 balanced of the foods. Wheat screenings and corn are the best 

 winter "foods to give warmth. The latter is one of the best fat-mak- 

 ing foods. Its exclusive use, however, checks laying, and induces 

 apoplexy. It is a good food when fed with two or three times its 

 bulk of other grain. 



Potatoes have no egg-forming material. Rice is not often fed, 

 but it excels all other foods in warmth. Beans and peas are strongly 

 stimulating, flesh-forming substances. They strengthen the muscu- 

 lar fiber, and when given exclusively render the flesh tough. Millet 

 and hemp seed are excellent for chicks. Manufactured pure bone 

 meal is excellent. Give some form Of lime for bone, and sand and 

 gravel to aid digestion. Old, crumbly mortar serves both purposes 

 to .perfection. Middlings and barley-meal, mixed with boiled pota- 

 toes or turnips, with skimmed milk, is one of the best general food>- 

 Do not give soft or sloppy food ; it induces diarrhea. Have most of 

 the food boiled, warm, and crumbling. Buckwheat is a good staple 

 food. Hemp seed can be fed sparingly v two or three times a week in 

 the moulting season, with excellent results. Confined fowls need an 

 occasional supply of meat, and a regular supply of green food. Cab- 

 bage, chopped fine, stem and all, is good, also mangel-wurtzel and 

 grass. Fowls with wide range, except in winter, need neither green 

 food nor meat supplied to them. 



Give fresh water at all times, as stagnant fluids breed cholera 

 and other diseases. Fill the vessels daily. Keep them clean, and 

 place them in the shade. In the moulting season keep in a little 

 sulphate of iron. 



In yards where there are ducks with chickens, feed the latter on 

 a raised platform about two feet high. The ducks will rarely fly up. 

 Do not feed in troughs, for they become filthy and breed disease. 



Fattening. 



Fowls should be closely penned when they are to be fattened 

 for market. Keep flesh-producing food before them constantly, or, 

 better still, give a clean supply at regular intervals. Corn, cornmeal 

 mush, and baked potatoes are excellent, but buckwheat meal and 

 cornmeal mixed into a dough, with skimmed milk, is the best. • Al- 

 low no sand or gravel during the last week. Keep the coops clean 

 and well ventilated. One peck of food will fatten almost any fowl. 

 Two to three weeks is sufficient time. Do n't force the feed. Cram- 

 ming is crueL 



