IN THE POULTRY YARD. 123 
These ate all makeshifts, however. The best way to reduce 
shells to powder is to pass them through a mill made for the pur- 
pose. Such mills are manufactured at Easton, Pa., by Wilson 
Bros., for $5.00 each, and will easily grind enough shells in ten min- 
utes to supply twenty hens for a week. A large portion of the 
shells is reduced to a very fine powder, and this should be sifted 
out and kept by itself’ The coarse chips are greedily picked up by 
the fowls, while the fine powder may be mixed with their cooked 
food in the proportion of a gill of powder to a gallon of food. 
We have seen writers in the agricultural journals recommend 
burné oyster shells for fowls | Oyster shells consist almost wholly of 
carbonate of lime, and when burned this is converted into caustic 
lime. ‘To give a fowl solid pieces of caustic lime to swallow is not 
a very prudent proceeding, to say the least of it. 
Another important source of lime is bones. Bones contain both 
lime and phosphorus, and form one of the very best additions to 
our poultry food. The directions usually given for using them, 
however, are exceedingly wasteful. Most writers direct us to burn 
them, so that they may be pounded easily.* ‘To bur bones that 
are intended for food is a good deal like burning corn and feeding 
the ashes.t We prefer fresh bones, which are fed either cooked or 
raw. To cook them we fill a good-sized pot with water, put in the 
bones with as much flesh on as possible, and let the whole simmer 
gently, just as if making soup. When thoroughly cooked the bones 
are taken out, and the “soup” is made into “mush” with Indian 
meal. Such mush is very nutritious. The flesh is now cut ‘from 
* Since bones are composed chiefly of phosphate of lime, with a very little car- 
bonate, they are not rendered caustic by being burned, and consequently the 
objection which holds in the case of burned oyster shells does not apply to them. 
The process of burning is simply a wasteful one. 
+ Parched or charred corn is, however, a very different matter. One of the 
best tonics for fowls, especially if they show & slight tendency either to consti- 
pation or diarrhoea, is charred corn. We have a large kettle, which we bought 
for old iron because it was cracked. in which we occasionally parch corn for our 
chickens. The kettle was roughly ‘‘set” in brickwork by our man, and the 
chimney is simply two lengths of old stove pipe, the whole being out of doors. 
A wooden cover keeps rain and snow out ofthe pot. A fire of brush soon heats 
the kettle so that it will char corn. Halfa bushel is then poured in and con- 
stantly stirred until it is quite dark—partially burned, in fact. The chickens eat 
it greedily, and we feel certain that it does them good. Of course we feed but 
“small quantities of it. Occasionally, however, we find chickens that will not 
touch it. In that case moisten it and roll it in ‘‘ feed.” 
