56 POULTKY FEEDING AND FATTENING 



they wanted. Second division received fourteen pounds 

 raw cut bone and all the gravel they wanted. Third 

 division received six pounds oyster shells and gravel. 

 Fourth division received nothing but gravel. Counting 

 bone at three cents per pound and shells at two cents, 

 the hens fed with cut bone more than doubled in value 

 of eggs. There was enough difference in those fed 

 shells to more than pay for the shell, but left a narrow 

 margin when fed with bone. Those fed bone more 

 than doubled on those fed nothing but gravel, or by the 

 test twenty cents per pound could have been paid for 

 the cut bone, while eggs brought twenty-five cents per 

 dozen. The hens that received the bone possessed a 

 much better plumage and wintered much the better. 



It is a highly concentrated food and must be used 

 cautiousljr. The only danger lies in feeding too much" 

 or in feeding that which is sour or moldy. The one 

 results in forcing the chicks or fowls "off their feed," 

 and in leg troubles, and the other in diarrhea and bowel 

 complaints. The maximum ration for laying hens is 

 one-half ounce per day. 



The use of green cut bone not only increases egg 

 production, but lessens the food cost of eggs. This is 

 very clearly shown by an experiment carried out by the 

 Hatch experiment station of Massachusetts a few years 

 ago with two lots of hens and pullets, nineteen in each 

 lot, and continuing pevcnty-riine days from February 9. 

 The food for one lot was in pounds as follows : Wliolo 

 wheat 99.5, oats 100, wheat bran 18.5, wheat middlings 

 18.5, Chicago gluten meal 18.5, ground clover 18.5, 

 green cut bone 10, total 283.5, cost $3.25, nutritive 

 ratio 1 to 4.8. The other lot received essentially the 

 same food, except that in place of the green bone it 

 got 9.7 j^ounds animal meal. The total food was S8?' 

 pounds, cost $3.2(1, mitritive ratio 1 to 4.9. The lot 

 receiving green cut bone laid 269 eggs at a cost of .940 



