AMERICAN POULTRY CULTURE 
or such a matter before feeding. The birds not 
only relish the grains more when treated in this 
way, but the size of the grains is also increased and 
the feed will go further. Fill any ordinary pail, 
kettle or tub three-quarters full of grain and thor- 
oughly cover with water, letting stand about twelve 
hours before feeding. 
Sprouted Grains. One time, while soaking 
some wheat in this way, I accidentally overlooked 
one pail of feed, and two or three days later, when 
it was discovered, a great deal of the wheat had 
begun to sprout. This was fed to the birds, and 
the extreme relish with which they ate it seemed 
significant. After that we did considerable experi- 
menting with sprouted grains for poultry, not only 
wheat, but also oats. As a result of this I have 
continued using sprouted grains for poultry down 
to this day, and will continue doing so, as the results 
have always made the extra work profitable. 
There is nothing better to cause young stock to 
eat large quantities of food, and there is no surer 
way of improving the palatability of oats so that 
the old fowls’ diet may be composed almost, if not 
quite, entirely of that grain without the fowls ob- 
jecting to it; also, where fowls are kept in close 
confinement, the sprouts go a long way toward 
solving the green-food problem, as the birds like 
the sprouts better than any other kind of green 
stuff that can be supplied. In fact, I consider and 
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