CHAPTER V 



THE FOOD PROBLEM 



We may buy the best eggs in tbe world. We may get from them 

 chicks that are marvels In health and vigor; but unless they are fed 

 right, these chicks will never be anything but culls. 



We may buy mature birds of the best quality; we may give them 

 ideal quarters; but unless we feed them right they will not lay well, 

 nor throw good stock. 



The secret of proper feeding has been well kept. The real 

 breeaers will usually tell you what they feed — in a general way; but 

 they do not give you the essential facts. The fake breeder, who sells 

 eggs from a fake "strain" may tell you of feeding 30 hens on scraps 

 from his table; and a "system" man may tell of "feed" at a few cents 

 per bushel. You cannot copy the legitimate breeder for you don't 

 know the particulars; and no man of sense will have anything to do 

 with the other sort. 



The secret of proper feeding cannot be told in a sentence. There 

 is too much of it. 



The beginner may be told what to feed his chicks. Possibly it 

 will be right; probably it will be wrong. The proper food for the 

 Mediterraneans won't do at all for the Asiatics; and something still 

 different is required for the American and English varieties. 



But in the beginning of things, the knowing breeder feeds for 

 chicks long before the eggs are laid from which those chicks are 

 hatched! 



