60 POULTRY-CRAFT. 
the use of brooders of large capacity is not generally approved by experts, 
and that allowance must be made for the growth of chicks. 
62. Feed Cookers.— Wherever a large stock of hens is kept, provision 
should be made for cooking the mash. On plants where a steam boiler is 
used, food is cooked in steam jacket kettles. Where steam is not available, 
set kettles —or, more commonly of late years, feed cookers, specially con- 
structed stoves with large boilers—are used. For baking johnnycake for 
chicks, an oil or gas stove with oven may be used. 
63. Feed Mixers. — Patented machines for mixing feed, either wet or 
dry, are on sale. Poultrymen who mix mill stuffs in proportions to suit 
themselves, will find it worth while to examine them. 
64. Bone Cutters.—It is often hard to decide whether to use a bone 
cutter or buy prepared meat foods. Green cut bone is considered the best 
cut food of the kind; but it is not always possible to get fresh bone regularly, 
nor is it always economy for the poultryman to spend time and strength in 
running a bone cutter. Where the commercial products can be had without 
the addition of heavy freight bills to the cost price, it is more satisfactory to 
use them; elsewhere it is better to use the bone cutter. Many poultrymen cut 
as much green bone as they can, and also use prepared foods. 
65. Grit Crushers.—There are few places where, if the commercial 
grits are not on sale, a natural substitute cannot be found. Wherever there is 
a gravel bed grit is easy to get. In the far west many poultry keepers use the 
coarse gravel from the large ant hills for grit. For those who must manu- 
facture the grit they use, it is better, and in the end cheaper, to buy a grit 
crusher than to use primitive methods of grit making. The cost of the 
machines is small. 
66. Hay Cutters are indispensable where many fowls are kept. On 
farms the hay for the hens can be cut in the large hay cutter gauged to its 
shortest cut. Ifa cutter is to be bought to cut hay for hens, one of the small 
machines made for poultrymen is preferable. 
67. Miscellaneous. —In addition to the things specially mentioned in 
the preceding paragraphs, a poultryman’s outfit includes: pails, for feed and 
water; scoops and spoons, or trowels for feeding; large coal buckets, for 
collecting droppings ; hoes, rakes, shovels, forks, brooms, a wheelbarrow, etc. 
Note. — Articles used particularly in dressing and marketing fowls will be described 
in the chapter devoted to those topics. 
