POULTRY-CRAFT. 103 
142. Methods of Feeding.—In feeding method and regularity are all 
important. There must be system. To the fowls it will make little differ- 
ence which of the many good systems is used. To the feeder it may make 
much difference. One system will be more conven/ent for this man, another 
more convenient for that. The most common method — among those who 
have method —is to give a mash in the morning; vegetables, cut bone, or a 
light feed of grain at noon; a full feed of grain in the evening. It is a good 
system, though the fact that equally good results attend the use of other 
systems,— among them one just the reverse of this,— disproves the very 
plausible theory which persuaded so many to adopt it. The theory was that 
the fowls, after their night’s fast, needed a meal that would be quickly assimi- 
lated, and that at night they needed a meal of hard grain slow of digestion. 
Grain in the morning and mash at night, give just as good results. Results 
as good as the best have also been obtained from grain mornings and evenings, 
and mash at noon. It is by no means certain that as good results cannot be 
obtained without a mash as with one; but general experience indicates that it 
is easier for most to get good results by using a mash feed ozce daily, than by 
omitting it. The great value of the mash lies in the opportunity it affords to 
more exactly regulate the ration. If the mash is not eaten eagerly, it is at 
once clear that the fowls are over-fed, or that the other food contains much 
too large a proportion of some substance prominent in the mash. To the 
trained feeder, the mash isa gauge of the condition of his flock. Whatever 
be the system adopted, it should be closely followed, and changed only for 
some very good reason. One of the common mistakes in amateur feeding is 
to make frequent radical changes of rations and of. methods of feeding —a 
sure way to bring about digestive troubles, and ultimately destroy the useful- 
ness of such fowls as are not killed outright. 
143. Cooking Food.— Some feeders cook the mash, some scald (half- 
cook) it, some merely wet it. It is commonly suppoged that cooked food is 
more digestible. As to that, there is no conclusive evidence. A significant 
pointer is that the leading duck raisers have changed from cooked to wet food 
for their ducklings. An objection to wet uncooked food is that it sours 
quickly. If given in the first stages of fermentation, it does no harm; but 
too often the feeder, unwilling to throw it out, takes long chances on very 
sour or mouldy food. Cooked food remains sweet much longer, and is there- 
fore preferable when enough for several feeds is to be prepared at one time. 
While good results are undoubtedly obtained with raw and partly cooked 
foods, general opinion and practice fayor the thorough cooking of mashes for 
both fowls and chicks, and of the baked cakes many use for chicks. Whole 
grains should be cooked only occasionally, by way of variety. For this a 
fibrous grain, as oats, not palatable in its natural state, should be selected. 
Cooked grain is, to all intents and purposes, a ‘‘ soft” food. Too much soft 
food in a ration impairs, through partial disuse, the digestive organs, which 
