AMEBICAX PATTIiXINO METHODS 109 



practiced abroad is not necessary for the best or cheap- 

 est gains. Prof. G. M. Gowell has made six group 

 ti'ials of close confinement as against partial liberty in 

 fattening chickens. Different foods were also tried, 

 but in each case they consisted of a mixture of ground 

 grain and by-products wet up with either water or 

 skimmilk. The trials comprised the use of thirty-five 

 separate coops and six houses. In these lots there M-ere 

 fed 321 chickens of different ages in periods of 

 twenty-one, twenty-eight and thirty-five days each. 

 The occupants of the coops were weighed weekly to 

 note the gain. In eleven of the coops, containing four 

 birds each, gains were greater than in the houses and 

 yards containing from twenty to sixty-eight birds with 

 which they were matched. In the twenty-four other 

 coops the gains were less than in the houses and yards 

 with which they were similarly matched. In five of the 

 six trials gains were greater in the houses and yards 

 where birds had partial liberty. 



The results show that close cooping is not necessarj' 

 in order to secure the greatest gains in chicken fatten- 

 ing and that the chickens make greater gains when 

 given a little liberty than when kept in close confine- 

 ment. N"ot only did they make greater gain in weight 

 but less food was requii-ed to make a pound of gain. 

 The labor involved in caring for birds in small numbers 

 in coops is much greater than in caring for an equal 

 number in houses and yards. In all the trials the 

 greatest gain was made in a feeding period of thirty- 

 five days. Forty chicks confined in the- coops gained 

 an average of two and one-quarter pounds each, while 

 twenty chicks of like age and condition fed in a house 

 and yard gained two and one-half pounds each. The 

 trials also show that the greatest and most economical 

 gains are made with j'oung fowls. In two trials birds 

 virti^h wpTe ninety-five days old at the beginning of the 



