26 POULTET FEEDIXG AND FATTENING 



ive from any caiTsc ; a fine sliowing for Jamiary chicks. 

 8ome of these chicks -\vcre raiseil to matiirity and proved 

 equal to the average to all apijearances, although the ■ 

 first ten or twelve weeks of their lives had been passed 

 wholly m the room mentioned. 



At the same time this experiment was going on 

 otlier chickens iiatched and fed in the same way as these 

 lust described were being reared in brooders heated 

 separately liy lamps in the usual manner, and about one- 

 half of tliem died from lung and other diseases before 

 reaching the In-oiler size. The manager of the warm 

 room experiment, Dr. Cooper Curtice, writes as follows 

 describing the feeding : 



"Many people have asked, on seeing the healthy- 

 growing, well-feathered young chicivs, wliat food we were 

 using. The winter's experience, in which a variety of 

 grains were used, indicates that it is not so much what 

 the food is as how the food is supplied, providing there 

 are plent}' of starchy, albuminous and green matters. 

 In nature, small seeds, insects and grass furnish food 

 for chickens. These are most abundant in the spring 

 and summer montlis, and it is at this time that the 

 chickens tlirive. To secure the best results, foods 

 simulating botli the composition and tlie mechanical 

 character of these should be supplied. For instance, in 

 the summer tlie tips of grasses are young and tender 

 and easily In-oken by the chickens. For green stuff to 

 be easily assimilable, some plant should he supplied 

 which may also be easily broken. We have found 

 hanging a head of lettuce in the brooder by a string to 

 exactly furnish the desired want and be greedily, even 

 crazily, eaten by the chickens. We have found that 

 sifting the cracked corn, scraps and cracked wheat 

 tlirough sieves, so as to remove botli the meal and larger 

 pieces, gives favorable results. Millet seeds, broken rice, 

 rolled oats, and other things of this character were 



