AMERICAN POULTRY CULTURE 
plant for several years, but it is not at all practical 
for adult fowls in confinement or for use during the 
winter, as it encourages laziness and the fowls are 
sure to overeat, becoming over-fat, and sooner or 
later will be falling ill with liver or bowel disorders. 
In fact, the only condition under which I could 
recommend the hopper system of feeding for 
mature fowls is in the summertime when they have 
ample range to induce lots of natural exercise and 
activity, and then the fowls will not overeat from 
the hoppers, because the bits of food they may pick 
up out on the range are more palatable and attrac- 
tive than the dry food in the hoppers. 
Ground food is preferable to whole grains for 
use in hopper. Use little or no food that is ex- 
tremely fattening for adult fowls. Cracked corn 
and middlings (shorts) should be used sparingly. 
Wheat bran, ground oats, buckwheat, etc., may be 
fed with comparative freedom. While there is no 
danger of the fowls overeating themselves on the 
hopper plan, there is a great deal of danger of 
them becoming over-fat, for though they may eat 
only a small quantity of food at a time and their 
crops may never be excessively full, as is sometimes 
the case after a meal, yet they manage to get away 
with a great deal of food in this way and it is a 
well-proven fact that hopper-fed fowls consume 
more food than those that have food placed before 
them only at intervals. 
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