EXPERT CHICKEN FEEDING 21 



l)roperly perform its work. Even baby chicks should 

 be fed upon a sanded floor. The gritty matter should 

 be as hard and sharp as possible, so that it will grind 

 up bones and such like substance. When chicks are 

 young, broken wheat, coarse oatmeal, canary seed and 

 hemp seed are each suitable. They should not have 

 much, if any, Indian corn, as it makes them too fat, and 

 thus renders them liable to a variety of ailments. For 

 stock purposes a fat fowl is worse than useless, for its 

 progeny is almost certain to be weak." 



Green food must be supplied. If the chicks are 

 cooped upon fresh grass the problem is solved and they 

 will help themselves to what they need. If, however, 

 they are confined in small yards, finely cut grass, as 

 from the lawn mower, onion tops chopped fine, lettuce 

 loaves, or even boiled vegetables, will make a good sub- 

 stitute. Tlie grass nm is the thing if possilile, and 

 substitutes are onl}' suggested where the grass run is 

 unobtainable. 



Fresh, cool water is kept constantly accessible and 

 a drink can be taken when wanted. 



Grit is another necessity. Don't think the chicks 

 can find this themselves. That is one of the commonest 

 mistakes in rearing chicks. Have a little dish of grit, 

 or fine gravel, or coarse sand, or broken oyster shells, 

 or broken crockery, or pounded bricks, or even fine 

 clinkers from coal ashes, such as -n-ill pass through a 

 quarter-inch mesh sieve, but won't pass tlirough an 

 eiglith-inch mesh sieve; all these are good, and one of 

 them at least is get-at-able. 



For the benefit of those who cannot get waste 

 bread we give Sir. I. K. Felch's rule for liis excelsior 

 meal bread : "Grind into a fine meal in the follomng 

 proportions : twenty pounds corn, fifteen pounds oats, 

 fen pounds barley, ten pounds wlieat liran. We make 

 the cake by taking one quart of sour milk oi- liuttermilk. 



