FEEDING PRACTICES AND APPLIANCES 401 



stock for a limited period upon ca ration consisting- largely of 

 corn and corn meal before killing or selling for food purposes. 

 Care should be taken, while encouraging the fowls to eat 

 a large amount of feed, not to overdo the matter. It is well 

 to supply all the accessories of the ration, including grit, shell, 

 and charcoal, as with other classes of stock, ancl to furnish 

 succulence and animal feed by way of variety. 



Milk Fattening. — Milk fattening refers to the practice of 

 forcing the laying on of flesh with fowls by feeding a ration 

 which consists of about two-thirds buttermilk by weight. 



So far as the author can ascertain, milk fattening was 

 first practised in this country in IQDO. During that year 

 S. Brill, a large poultry dealer from London, spent the fall 

 months at the St. Joseph (Mo.) plant of Swift and Company 

 and fed 1200 birds by way of demonstration. The following 

 season he supervised the feeding of seven thousand head, 

 since which time milk feeding has had an enormous growth. 



Owing to the action of acid in the milk or the lack of 

 calcium in the ration, or some other cause, the bones of milk- 

 fed chickens are usually very brittle and easily broken. This, 

 in connection with the fact that milk-fed birds shrink very 

 badly when shi]i])ed ali\'e, precludes luilk fattening on the 

 farm, unless the fowls are also dressed at the farm. It is 

 ju-actically im]:)Ossible to move fowls that have ])een fulh' 

 fin shed on milk without causing the breakage of legs or 

 wings, so bruising and scarring them that they present an 

 unattractive dressed carcass, and having such a shrinkage 

 that a large part of the gains are lost. 



In the routine of fattening, as many birds are placed in 

 crates (see p. 415) as can find room to stand along the front 

 of the crate to reach out to the trough for feed. They are 

 starved twenty-four hours before the first feeding. The feed, 

 which usually consists of about two parts by weight of butter- 

 milk to one of ground grain, is in the form of a porridge, which 

 is poured into the troughs before the birds, the feeder being very 

 careful not to supply more than the birds will consume, or, 

 in case of an oversupply, removing what remains just before 

 the birds have had all they desire. The development of that 

 judgment which enables the feeder to sense when the birds 

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