FIRST LESSONS IN FOULTBY KEEPING. 119 



occasionally over-fed is not injured l)y it. If the feeder "is onto his job" he quiclily notes that 

 the food is not eaten, or if it is eaten the appetite is poorer at the next meal, and he feeds short 

 for a meal or two, or perhaps omils a meal, and the fowl is soon feeding right again. 



Feeling the Way. 



To go back to the novice, if feeding what he estimates to be the average amount his number 

 of fowls should get, they are in good condition and laying well, he may reasonably conclude 

 that he is feeding about right, and keep right on giving thai quantity. 



If the fowls while in good condition, bright and hearty, do not lay well, the natural conclusion 

 is that they need a little more food, and the ration should be increased. In such a case as this 

 it is advisable to handle the fowls to ascertain just what condition they are in. If rather thin in 

 flesh it is better to increase a little on every feed. If in pretty fair flesh it may be better t> 

 increase only on one meal each day, — for if fed too heavily they may fatten instead of beginning 

 to lay as desired. 



If hens liegin to show lack of appetite, and "go off their feed," the rations should be reduced, 

 and if a mash is fed it is best to make the principal reduction in the mash, for that is the meaj 

 that they get with least effort, and exercise is one of the best restoratives of condition anil 

 appetite 



When in doubt the novice should reread bis instructions, and if he fails to find in tben> 

 information that seems to suit the case, should not hesitate to ask questions. He should also 

 try to make himself a good judge of food stuffs, for often the quantity to feed depends to some 

 extent on the quality of the feed. Thus in feeding wheat I discovered a number of years ago 

 what doubtless hundreds had discovered before, and thousands since, that hard wheat fee! 

 further than soft, and that red wheats, being generally harder, were more economical poultry 

 food than white wheat. Again, in feeding damaged foods, one must sometimes make allowance 

 for the damage; and, in feeding wheat screenings containing other matter, must estimate the 

 amount of waste and feed accordingly. Also in feeding mashes; though a bulky mash fills ,the 

 crop up more quickly, it must be fed more freely than a rich concentrated mash, when the 

 intention is to make a full feed of the mash. If we suppose that the feeder makes generally 

 what we may call a standard mash, and that in feeding it he allows one large iron spoonful to 

 two fowls, if he makes a more bulky mash, that is, a mash with a larger proportion of such 

 bulky and not liighly nutritious stuffs as bran and clover, he must allow more. If he makes a 

 hii;ljly concentrated mash with a large proportion o"f corn meal and of beef scrap or other meat, 

 he must feed less than the usual quantity, for his fowls accustomed to cease eating when the 

 crop has reached a certain stage of distention, are very apt to eat at first just as much bulk of 

 the concentrated as of the ordinary mash. If they are of robust digestion it may iiothuit 

 them any. If they are not he may quickly have some bad cases of indigestion on his hands. 



In using the bulky mash he may lind that the fowls will not eat more than their usual bulk 

 allowance of it, and if this is the case, and if it is necessary that they should get the same 

 nutrition as before, he must increase on some other feed. As the reader may have guessed 

 from what has been said, giving the mash more bulk is one way of satisfying the appetite of 

 fowls without giving them more nutrition than they need. The occasior for this depends on 

 the eating habits of the fowls, which vary as much as the eating habits of people. 



The Three Prime Factors. 



It would be possible to make a very long article of this, and then not have considered more 

 than a very small part of the possible illustrations of adjustments of feeding. From what has 

 been said 1 think most readers will see that the important factors in feeding fowls are common 

 sense, familiarity with food articles and with fowls, and practice; and that the feeding of 

 fowls is not a matter requiring special academic education, and familiarity with technical terms 

 and scientific methods, but a simple, every day process in which a person of very limited 

 education and utter ignorance of "science," as it applies to poultry feeding, may become highly 

 proficient, and in which, in fact, the nio^t successful feeders are meu and women who give no 

 attention to scientific expositions of feeding problems. 



