266 ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON STOCK FEEDS AND FEEDING 



Pearl in Farmers' Bui. 357, says : "An experiment with 150 

 birds when they were four months old showed that they re- 

 quired 4.9 lbs. of grain to produce i pound of gain, while birds 

 from the same stock, when they were six months old, required 

 7.4 lbs. of grain to produce i pound of gain." He further con- 

 cludes that: 



1. "As great gains are made just as cheaply and more easily 

 when the chickens are put into small houses and yards as when 

 they are fed in small lots in lattice coops just large enough to 

 hold them. 



2. "Four weeks is about the limit of profitable feeding, both 

 individually and in flocks. 



3. "Chickens gain faster while young. Birds that are from 

 150-175 days old have uniformly given comparatively small gains. 



4. "The practice of successful poultrymen selling chickens at 

 the earliest marketable age is well founded. 



"The experiments clearly indicate that it is profitable to fatten 

 chickens in cheaply constructed sheds or in large coops with 

 small runs for about four weeks and then send them to market 

 dressed. In quality the well covered, soft fleshed chickens are 

 so much superior to the same birds not specially prepared that 

 the former will be sought for at a higher price. The dairy 

 farmer is particularly well prepared to carry on this work, as he 

 has the skim milk which these experiments show to be of so 

 great importance in obtaining cheap rapid growth and superior 

 quality of flesh." 



Laying Rations. — According to Farmers' Bui. 357, the meth- 

 od followed at the Maine Experiment Station in feeding laying 

 hens is as follows : 



"Early in the morning for each 100 hens (Plymouth Rocks), 

 4 quarts of whole corn are scattered on the litter, which is 6 to 

 8 inches deep on the floor. This is not mixed into the litter, for 

 the straw is dry and light, and enough of the grain is hidden 

 so the birds commence scratching for it almost immediately. 

 At 10 o'clock they are fed in the same way, 2 quarts of wheat 

 and 2 quarts of oats. This is all the regular feeding that is 

 done. 



