CARE OF FUTURE LAYERS 39 



mash food. Of the first the greater number perhaps 

 place their beef scraps and dry bran in hoppers where the 

 fowls constantly have access to it and bury the remainder 

 of the food, which is whole and cracked grains, in the litter. 



Of those who still cling to the use of mash, part feed it 

 in the morning and part feed it at night. A few believe 

 that mash should be cool when fed and others desire to feed 

 it warm. 



The best results, from the writer's experience, have been 

 obtained by the use of a judicious combination of the two 

 methods. Whole and cracked grain are fed in the litter in 

 the morning, as soon as the fowls leave their roosts. Corn, 

 wheat and oats, furnished alternately, with an occasional 

 feed of barley is used for this purpose. At noon on very 

 cold days, more grain is buried in the scratching material 

 in order that the fowls may have more opportunity to ex- 

 ercise and hasten the circulation of their blood, thereby 

 protecting them to some extent against cold. If ground 

 green bone is fed, noon is the time to feed it. At night a 

 mash made up of two parts corn meal, three parts bran, one 

 and one half parts steamed green cured clover, and beef 

 scraps added to make ten per cent of the whole, mixed with 

 water or milk, has always produced satisfactory results. 

 For the vegetable part of this mash, cooked and mashed 

 potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips or any combination of these 

 varieties is desirable and may be used at very slight ex- 

 pense. 



We are frequently asked about the quantity of food needed 

 by each fowl. This question can never be definitely ans- 

 wered because fowls of the same breed, in the same pen, 

 will consume different amounts, and two pens of the same 

 variety, kept under apparently the same conditions, will 

 require different amounts of food at different times. It is 

 a safe rule to feed in the litter no more grain than the fowls 

 are willing to scratch hard to obtain and to feed no more 

 mash food in the troughs than will be quickly consumed. 

 Clean water should always be provided and in such a man- 

 ner that the fowls cannot scratch dirt into it. Grit, shells, 

 and charcoal should always be accessible. 



