92 POULTRY-CRAFT. 
CHAPTER VII. 
Foods and Feeding. 
115. Corn — is, of all grains used as poultry food, the cheapest and most 
generally available. It is probable that American fowls are fed more corn 
and corn products than of all other grain products combined. This is cer- 
tainly true of the farm flocks and small flocks. In the area which produces 
a large surplus of poultry, corn is the almost exclusive grain food. In the 
practice of the best special poultry farmers it is not so much used, but still 
is fed more generously than the balance of published opinion against its use 
would indicate. It contains carbonaceous matter in excess of the require- 
ments of all fowls in warm weather, of fowls in confinement with moderate 
exercise, and of fowls warmly housed in winter. Under the opposites of 
these conditions corn and corn products may be the principal part of the 
grain diet: provided, always, that the fowls have all the vegetable and 
animal food they need, and care is taken to prevent the over-eating of corn 
in warm weather. There is danger in feeding corn heavily. There is 
danger in heavy feeding of any grain palatable to fowls. With whole 
corn the danger is greatest, because the fowls get, with so little exercise, so 
much food of a kind which gives under ordinary conditions some surplus of 
heat — energy which, if not used in searching for more food, is stored up as 
fat: finally to the detriment of the fowl. 
The greatest abuse of corn is in the failure of those who use it freely with 
good results in cold weather to reduce a /té/e the amount of corn in the 
ration for hot weather. Knowledge of the widespread disorders growing out 
of this neglect, has led some authorities on feeding to place so much stress on 
the risks of feeding corn that many are afraid of it, and use so sparingly that 
they reduce their profits as much by over-caution as the others do by careless- 
ness. From one extreme to the other is a ‘‘far cry.” It is as easy to learn 
to feed corn right as to learn to feed right. Considering that corn always 
must be a staple article of poultry food, it is as necessary for nine out of ten 
American poultry keepers to learn to feed corn right as it is that they should 
make poultry profitable. 
The forms in which corn foods are on sale are: 
WHOLE Corn —(generally shelled, but in some places also on the cob). 
May be fed freely as an evening meal to growing stock large enough to eat 
it; to fowls in cold quarters or on range; may be a part of the evening food 
