58 POULTRY FEEDING AND FATTENING 



made on purpose, wliicli are not expensive. The cut 

 Irone may be mixed and fed in the masli, but it is 

 preferable to feed it alone. Fowls and chicks are very 

 fond of it, and it is the best exerciser for them. 

 Scatter it at noon in the straw or litter on the floor and 

 there will be such a scratching for it as you have 

 seldom seen. It is a good practice to feed it three times 

 a week, although a little may be given daily. It should 

 be fed at a regular hour on certain days, for when the 

 hens get accustomed to it they are uneasy unless it is 

 given them at the expected time. The only precautions 

 necessary to deserve are never feed too much, nor any 

 which is tainted. 



The AYest Virginia experiment station has com- 

 pared the value of bone and meat meal for egg produc- 

 tion, with results decidedly in favor of the green bone. 



During a jieriod of four months, begimiing 

 October 25, seventeen Plymouth Rock hens fed the fresh 

 bone laid 650 eggs of an average weight of 11.75 

 pounds per 100, while a similar nuinber fed meat meal 

 in their ration laid 55-1 eggs, weighing 11.91 pounds 

 per 100. The fowls fed fresh ground meat and bone 

 also increased more in weight and were much healthier 

 during tlie experiment, four of the others having died, 

 and being replaced by others. As this experiment was 

 made with only one sample of meat meal the results 

 cannot be considered conclusive. 



Horseflesh — In Anglo-Saxon communities there is 

 a strong prejudice against horseflesh as food. The 

 objection, however, can scarcely apply to tlie use of it 

 as poultry food, since fowls consume far less attractive 

 food in the course of their foraging and without injury 

 to the egg and meat product. Writes J. J. II. Gregory, 

 a veteran agriculturist of national re|)utation : 



"Some twenty 3'ears ago, the horse of a neighbor 

 having met with an accident had to be killed. The 



