Hubbard's poultry secrets. 31 



Never feed any meat or beef scraps of any kind for the first 

 six weeks of feeding. For animal food, I use new milk, not 

 skimmed, that has just come to a boil. The first week, use just 

 enough hot milk to make the mash moist and crumbly. After 

 the first week, use more milk, to make the feed a little more 

 moist. Give them all they will eat in five minutes, taking away 

 any that is left. If this system of feeding is followed very 

 carefully for six weeks, the chickens will grow very rapidly. 

 Their digestion will not be overtaxed and they will be able to 

 stand a little heavier feed without poor results. For green 

 food cut a piece of sod and put it in their coop. They will en- 

 joy scratching it to pieces to get the grass and roots. 



For the next six weeks I feed them five times a day. Use 

 the same mixture as before, only this time add to it a few 

 mashed potatoes. These potatoes should be cooked in water 

 which contains a little salt. You will find that by adding the 

 boiled potatoes to the mash, it will be much relished by the 

 chicks and it will make them grow much faster, which will 

 pay you for the extra trouble of boiling them. Use this mash 

 in the morning and evening. 



For the other three feeds use a scratch food, which is com- 

 posed of wheat, cracked corn, and sprouted oats, which should 

 be fed separately, not mixed together. As stated above, the 

 first feed early in the morning should consist of mash, not all 

 they will eat, but what is called a half-feed. Their next feed 

 should be at nine o'clock, and should consist of wheat thrown 

 in the litter, which will make them work to get it. This 

 should also be a short feed. At noon, they should be fed 

 oats, which have been sprouted in the following manner : 



Soak two quarts of oats in a pail of water for 24 hours. 



Add 40 drops of tincture of iron to each pail. 



Plant the oats in a warm sunny spot in a trench and cover 

 with about three inches of dirt. 



