BROILERS, CAPONS AND ROASTERS 207 



The American breeds — Wyandottes, Plymouth 

 Rocks and Rhode Island Reds — are commonly used 

 for broilers ; any quickly-growing, plump bird will do. 

 Leghorn and Minorca cockerels at ten weeks old make 

 excellent broilers. Brahmas usually lack in plump- 

 ness. In order to determine the best breeds of fowls 

 adapted for broilers, and also the cost of raising them 

 to a marketable age, the South Carolina experiment 

 station has conducted some experiments on these lines. 

 Three varieties of thoroughbreds, two crosses of thor- 

 oughbreds, and two crosses of thoroughbreds on com- 

 mon fowls were used. The eggs were hatched in 

 incubators and ten chicks from each lot were put into a 

 brooder. 



The chicks were fed the first week on bread made 

 of equal parts corn meal and wheat bran, mixed with 

 salt, buttermilk and soda, and thoroughly baked. They 

 were fed all they would eat five times a day. The 

 second week they were fed bread at six o'clock, beef 

 scraps at ten, bread at two, and at four. German 

 millet was scattered in straw for them to work on 

 until night. After the second week they were given 

 bread, beef scrap, cracked corn and cracked wheat. 

 They also had skimmilk, buttermilk once a day and all 

 the green food they would eat. The following table 

 shows the growth of the chickens to twelve weeks of 

 age: 



WEIGHT IN OUNCES PER CHICKEN 



2d 4th Sth 12th 



week week week week 



Barred Plymouth Rock 3% 9^ 29 43% 



S.L.Wyandotte 3 ,8% 28% 42% 



Indian Game 3 9 28% 43 



Indian Game X Plymouth Rock.. 4 lOii 32 45% 



Pit Game X Plymouth Rock 3% 10 31% 46 



Plymouth Rock X common 3% 8% 23 43 



S. L. Wyandotte X common 3 8% 26% 41 



The Wyandotte, Indian Game and Plymouth Rock 

 cross and Pit Game and Plymouth Rock cross showed 



