SECRET OF SUCCESS IN POULTRY CULTURE 



A VENERABLE POULTRYMAN GIVES RESULTS OF FIFTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE IN POULTRY CUL- 

 TURE—BELIEVES SECRET LIES IN FEEDING— COMPARES POULTRY, MEAT AND EGGS V7ITH FOODS 

 WHICH PRODUCE THEM— SELLING EGGS BY V7EIGHT— ACCEPTS DR. DECHMANN'S THEORY 



I. K. FELCH, Natick, Mass. 



[A lecture delivered April, 1906 by the Sage of Natick before the 

 poultry class at the Rhode Island State Experiment Station and reproduc- 

 ed here from copy furnished us by Mr. Felch]. 



ADMITTING that the feeding of hens is not all 

 there is to poultry culture, yet you, my reader, 

 can spend your lifetime studying the subject 

 and still leave beneficial discoveries for others 

 to make. 



Fowls and eggs are a manufactured pro- 

 duct — a pound of flesh or a pound of eggs will be 

 found to cost practically the same, no matter what breed we use 

 to produce them, when we have found under what conditions 

 each separate breed does its best. The Brahma pullets at 

 seven to eight pounds and the White Wyandottes at five to 

 five and one-half pounds, fed and cared for under like circum- 

 stances, will cost the same per pound to produce and the same 

 for care and food during the months of their usefulness. The 

 breed that lays the greatest number of pounds in eggs will 

 cost the most to feed. At the end of their usefulness, say at 

 two years, they sell each at the same per pound. It matters 

 not that it takes seven months to mature the Brahma and six 

 months to mature the Wyandotte, at the grand windup we 

 find things evened up. 



SELLING EGGS BY WEIGHT 



Today all eggs are sold by the dozen, but we find 150 Brah- 

 ma eggs, 168 Plymouth Rock, 213 Wyandotte and Rhode Island 

 Red eggs, as these breeds as flocks lay them, all will weigh the 

 same. Now as all are sold at the same price per dozen we find 

 that the Brahmas are suffering under a custom that is protect- 

 ing the smaller breeds, and that the Rocks are receiving llj 

 per cent and the Wyandottes 13 per cent per pound more than 

 do the Brahmas. 



The only advantage the Brahmas have is in the private 

 trade they sometimes enjoy where they receive 50 cents per 

 dozen from the wealthy, who often appreciate the difference 

 in the size of eggs. Make IJ pounds (24 ounces) a dozen of' 

 eggs_ and you would hear little about differences between the 

 cost of keeping of the larger varieties. The present practice 

 of selling by number instead of weight\ takes away all the desire 

 or pride of the fancier to produce eggs that are strictly first-class. 



CONSTITUENTS OF POULTRY PRODUCTS AND FOODS 



But these conditions can be improved by man. In a single 

 lecture we can give only the most generally used rules for feed- 

 ing, which have thus far given satisfactory results. It is our 

 object to feed that which in its composition is like the elements 

 we find in the desired product, to-wit, poultry meat and eggs, 

 so that it will produce them in abundance and besides give us 

 a fresh, glossy plumage when we are preparing them for ex- 

 hibition. 



How to do this is the live question of the hour, and to pre- 

 sent the subject so that the young and inexperienced may profit 

 by our words is our endeavor at this time. 



Our colleges are doing wonderful work in this direction and 

 one does well to study the results of their experiments. But 

 thousands do not do this, even those who are employed as 



helpers and caretakers in poultry raising. Yet they will read 

 and profit by an essay couched in simple language, and to give 

 them this is our object today. 



All analyses show that poultry meat and fresh-laid eggs are 

 so nearly alike in their constituent parts that both are produced 

 in their greatest abundance by the use of foods of the same 

 character, this food being secured by the proper mixing of the 

 different grains with vegetable and animal matter. The feed- 

 ing of such a balanced food is wise. 



Discarding small fractions, we find that a fowl is composed 

 of water, 51 per cent; ash (bone forming), 3J per cent; protein, 

 24 per cent; fat (or heat), 23 per cent. 



In the new-laid eggs we find water, 66 per cent; ash (the 

 shell), 12 per cent; protein, llj per 'cent; fat, 9 per cent. 



To feed to produce these essentials is our work. We must 

 sq mix the grain and meat that we shall secure the exact pro- 

 portion, and furnish carbohydrates for the warmth and comfort 

 of our living factories — for such are our flocks. 



In following out this theory we find by analysis that corn 

 has water, 11 per cent; ash (or bone), IJ per cent; protein, 8 

 per cent; carbohydrates, 67 per cent; fat, better than 4 per cent. 

 In peas we have water, 10 per cent; ash, 2J per cent; pro- 

 tein, 17 per cent; carbohydrates and fat combined, 53 per cent. 

 Mangel wurzels have 87 per cent water; ash, li per cent; 

 protein, IJ per cent; carbohydrates and fat, 6J per cent. Clover 

 and hay has 15 per cent water; ash, 6 per cent; protein, 7 per 

 cent; carbohydrates and fat, 38 per cent. 



Sunflowers have water, 8J per cent; ash, 2J per cent; pro- 

 tein, 12 per cent; carbohydrates, 21 per cent; fat, 29 per cent. 

 (Too much carbohydrates and fat for an exclusive food). 



Beef scraps have water, 11 per cent; ash, 6 per cent; protein, 

 66 per cent; less than J per cent of carbohydrates, but 14 per 

 cent of fat. 



In these we find all that we found in poultry meat and eggs, 

 besides starch, sugar and gum in the carbohydrates, which 

 with the fat gives the necessary heat. 



The sunflower with its 21 per cent of carbohydrates and 

 29 per cent of fat, lacks albumen in proportion, which makes 

 them desirable as a food for only a short time to secure gloss 

 upon the plumage and to fill their skin with fat in our high 

 colored specimens, for exhibition purposes. 



Another list is expressed in a different maimer: Com, 11 

 per cent water; 11 per cent muscle growing properties; IJ per 

 cent bone forming properties; balance, heat and fat. 



Oats, 22 per cent muscle growing; 3 per cent bone forming; 

 balance, heat and fat. 



Wheat, 17 per cent muscle growing; hardly one per cent 

 bone forming; balance, heat and fat. 



Barley, 20 per cent muscle growing; 2 per cent bone form- 

 ing; balance, heat and fat. 



Beans, 32 per cent muscle forming; hardly 1 per cent bone 

 forming; balance, heat and fat. 



When we combine 15 pounds of corn, 10 pounds of oats, 15 

 pounds of barley and 15 pounds of wheat bran we have a mixed 

 meal that contains 17 per cent of muscle growing properties, 

 If per cent of bone forming properties and the balance is heat 

 and fat. When we add to this composition meal, enough beef 

 scrap and ground clover, so that the mash represents in bulk 



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