42 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



will be relished and will help to keep your young broods 

 in health and promote a rapid growth. 



As soon as the chicks get large enough to eat grain 

 it should be furnished them. Cracked corn and wheat 

 make a good food, and chicks will begin to eat such 

 food when they are quite young. 



Bone meal, or bone cracked fine enough for them to 

 swallow, powdered charcoal, lime, sulphur, sand and gravel 

 should be among the poulterer's supplies and should be 

 frequently furnished to the growing broods. 



Chicks don't always know enough to go in when it 

 rains ; therefore, you must keep them in when it rains 

 until they are some weeks old. Keep them, also, from 

 tramping through the grass when the dew is on it. 

 Moisture, applied externally, to the young chick is deadly. 

 Keep them from it and they ought to do well. 



Incubator chicks need the same kind of care. They 

 must be kept dry and warm, and their brooder kept 

 scrupulously clean, and the air which they breathe kept 

 fresh and pure, and they will thrive and grow rapidly. 



FEEDING FOWLS. 



Feeding, like any other subject, may have its philoso- 

 phy, that is, its general principles, which underlie and 

 explain the particular facts. These are not numerous ; 

 indeed, six principles will be found sufficient to explain 

 the subject satisfactorily. These are — 



I St. Feed for what you wish to produce. One system 

 of feeding is best adapted to the production of eggs ; 

 another to the growth of flesh and fat ; and another to 

 the development of virility and the strengthening of the 

 reproductive organs. 



