REGULATING THE MOLT 97 



we keep in mind in selecting our food rations the fact that 

 our fowls will in the fall be in molt. We are feeding them 

 all the time to meet this condition. 



Fowls when properly fed begin to molt in August 

 This early molt is the effect of what is sometimes 

 called high feeding, but what is really proper feeding. Such, 

 fowls, by reason of the correct feeding, and the housing from 

 rains and exposure, are in such a condition that they molt, 

 early, for, being strong and rugged and healthy, nature: 

 finds every requirement at hand and proceeds to business. 

 It is another illustration of men working hand in hand with 

 nature, aiding and abetting. That is all. 



Now, as to bringing about this condition. Our practice 

 has been to feed such rations as will thus put the fowls 

 in this condition. This means that oats, both ground and 

 whole, some corn meal, some oil cake meal, some beef 

 scraps, raw bone, and like foods, have been daily given the 

 fowls. 



Use of Oil Meal. 



We would not be without oil cake meal. It is one of the 

 most valuable foods in all the list. It will keep the growing 

 chicks in perfect condition so far as their bowels are con- 

 cerned; it prevents loss of chicks by bowel trouble, the 

 trouble that carries off a very large per cent of the chicks 

 which die; it is rich in feather making properties, and gives 

 the plumage a gloss that cannot otherwise be obtained. 

 Not only this, but the fowls are supplied all the time with a 

 blue grass and clover range. We have been building up 

 the fowl in every particular, bone, blood, muscle, etc., and 

 this ration, this care, supplies, according to nature, the very 

 material necessary for feather making at the time of molt. 



