88 BROILERS AND ROASTERS. 



CHAPTER VII 



Fattening. 



50. Fattening Broilers. — X fat broiler is quite a 

 rarity. The best that can be done, in general, is to have 

 them plump. From what I have seen of broilers in the 

 markets and on exhibition I think that a grower will be 

 more successful in getting plump specimens by selecting 

 and breeding for that quality than by trying to fatten slim 

 specimens of five or six weeks old chicks. However, for 

 chicks that are not plump something must be done. The 

 usual way is to feed a mash of about two-thirds corn meal 

 and one-third bran. To this some breeders add molasses 

 and cotton seed meal, some ten per cent cotton seed meal 

 and twenty-five to thirty per cent beef scraps. Such heavy 

 feeding of rich foods is accompanied by a good deal of 

 risk, and it is no uncommon thing for a grower to hurt his 

 chicks more than he helps them by it. . 



The natural tendency of the chick is to turn all nutri- 

 ment to growth and development, and it may do this with 

 a "fattening" ration — until the digestive system goes to 

 pieces as the result of high feeding. The fattening of 



