SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



15 per cent of meat, 25 per cent of vegetable matter and 60 per 

 cent of this composition meal we have made a balanced ration, 

 which will give the flock no excuse if it fails to produce flesh, 

 eggs or a fine plumage. But here is an item worth knowing: 

 While we can obtain protein from grain, protein derived from 

 milk and meat is much more productive of muscle and early 

 fecundity, and well repaid will be the feeder who is generous 

 in the use of meat and fish bi-products, such as beef scraps, 

 desiccated fish and beef blood. Of course fresh raw meat and 

 bone must be considered best. Any bi-product that is not clean 

 and wholesome is a questionable commodity. Clean feeding 

 is as essential for fowls as for the human family. 



ACCEPTS DR. DECHMANN'S THEORY 



There is something besides the question of muscle growing 

 and egg production which is of vital interest to us. 



Recently it has been claimed that glass, granite, sea shells, 

 charcoal and even gravel stones are all digestible and are really 

 food as well as helps to digestion and that they complete the 



A BUNCH OF THRIFTY BARRED ROCKS 



work of the food in perfecting the plumage and giving it a rich 

 gloss. We see a healthy, brilliant plumage only upon a healthy 

 body and prolific egg producer. 



The fact that sea shells, charcoal and pounded glass are 

 eagerly eaten led me to accept the theory that the grit and 

 gravel likewise are digested and have a work to perform in pro- 

 ducing a healthy condition in our flocks. Dr. Dechmann, is 

 right. If the feathers contain glass, do we not have a motive 

 for the fowls eating the glass? 



Here is a case in point: I had a flock of cockerels cooped 

 for killing. They had everything to eat but charcoal and gravel. 

 I commenced to feed these and was astonished at the amount 

 they ate and the gain in flesh they made in ten days, after this 

 addition to their rations. Fowls when molting should never be 

 without food rich in protein (milk and meat), gravel, grit, char- 

 coal and pounded glass. 



A PROPERLY BALANCED RATION 



You can see why corn and mangels are a failure in egg pro- 

 duction as compared with cereals rich in protein. Excessive 



fat is a foe to vital vigor, and this is why very fat hens lay eggs 

 that hatch poorly. A long continued fat condition becomes a 

 disease. 



A healthy diet is one that has 17 to 20 per cent muscle 

 growing power (such a diet is likewise egg productive) and 

 1| to 2 per cent of bone forming power so that the chick may 

 be well boned and strong, and that the eggs may be covered 

 in a firm, smooth shell. No one can hatch healthy chicks out 

 of fat, thin-shelled eggs. 



The foregoing is the result of my past 50 years' experience 

 in poultry culture. While it has served me, it will not keep 

 you, my reader, to the front in these days of extensive research, 

 intense application and keen study of the business. Today in 

 almost all businesses we are looking among the bi-products for 

 a large portion of our profits. Thus must we be constant in the 

 outlook for new forms of foods, new rations and methods of 

 care (even to the saving of the feathers) that we may secure the 

 very last cent of profit, getting the greatest groyrth at the lowest 

 cost for food consumed. 



The entire nation's increase in wealth is but 3 per cent each 

 year where labor secures a fair living. 

 This increase gets into so few hands we 

 are slow to believe that it is true. But 

 true enough it is, that careless manage- 

 ment brings failure to any calling. 



This warning means that we are to 

 give our best efforts in ability, zeal and 

 study, making our calling a second nature, 

 so to speak. A competency comes only 

 by a strenuous life among our fowls. 



PURE AIR A NECESSITY 



Pure air is just as much a food for 

 our flocks as the grain we feed. A hun- 

 dred times have I told you that a fowl's 

 heart beats 150 times each minute of 

 its life. Why? Because it never sweats. 

 Respiration is the channel through which 

 they expel the waste and impurities that 

 perspiration accomplishes for the himian 

 family. They need seven times the air 

 in proportion to jveight that does the 

 horse or man. Think of this: A ten 

 pound hen demands the same amount 

 that a child of seventy pounds does. 

 Furnish this and the rations I have and 

 will describe, with housing that will se- 

 cure the temperature of May and September, and you will 

 see a corresponding eggproduct. 



It will be folly to furnish excessive heat and expect a pro- 

 duct that is largely albumen. For one may as well overfeed 

 the furnace that drives the looms and fail to furnish the wool or 

 cotton out of which to weave the cloth. 



The hens are as much a factory for the production of eggs 

 as the cotton mills are for the production of cloth. Each day 

 they must have their exact needs supplied if they are to give 

 us the best product of their labor. Her food must be such that 

 she can glean from it the 3 8-10 bone forming material, the 21J 

 per cent of protein and suficient carbohydrates to produce 

 health. 



How to do this is the question in poultry culture. Poultry 

 culture is no longer a problem of thoroughbreds alone. Even 

 those who reed primarily for exhibition purposes have to be- 

 come poulterers for fully 50 per cent of their yearly product 



TO PRODUCE DESIRABLE EGGS 



Why do hens lay soft-shell eggs? Why do soft-shell eggs 

 hatch poorly? You say the fowls are too fat. The fowls are 



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