FEEDS AND FEEDING I33, 



boiling water as before, then salt and the stimulating; 

 condiment and the meal stirred in. 



"This mash contains a great variety of food ele- 

 ments, and this variety is a quite important factor. A 

 fowl needs a variety of food to supply her various 

 physical needs, and give her a surplus out of which, 

 to make eggs, and this 'variety' of foods we believe we 

 can best attain in the manner described above. An. 

 additional advantage is that a tonic or stimulant can be 

 added if .desired; we sometimes substitute a teaspoon- 

 ful of tincture of iron for the condiment, and some- 

 times add a handful of linseed meal or cottonseed 

 meal ; but the latter are somewhat fattening as well as 

 stimulating and those who feed their fowls well must 

 beware of too fattening foods. Some poultrymen 

 make a practice of stirring up the mash scalding hot 

 in the morning and feeding it at once. In that case the 

 meals are simply scalded — are not cooked. By our 

 method the meals are semi-cooked and more immedi- 

 ately available for assimilation ; hence we prefer mak- 

 ing up the mash the afternoon of the day before and 

 having it semi-cooked when fed, to having it fed hot 

 but only scalded. 



"This morning's mash is fed in troughs large 

 enough so that all of the fifteen fowls in a pen can get 

 about it at one time ; another important factor because 

 if the trough is small some of the birds have to stand 

 back and wait for second table and when their chance 

 does come there's nothing left for them. With a trough 

 four feet long by six inches wide, there is plenty of 

 room, and if a biddy is driven away from one place, she 

 runs around and goes to eating at another, and thus all 

 get a share. 



"Our fowls have exercise ground in summer, in 

 yards 125 by twelve feet, which give them a grass run 

 with growing grass always in the growing season and 



