SUBURBAN POULTRY-KEEPING 41 
then no necessity for a male bird, which is so often objectionable 
in a populated district. 
I am tempted to give another instance of success on a small scale 
in a suburban district. This is an instance known to me personally, 
and the results, if rather remarkable, are by no means unique. 
From five pullets and one year-old hen—all cross-breeds— 
1010 eggs were laid from the 1st January 1916 to 14th October 
of the same year, After the third week in January, when 11 eggs 
were laid, there were never fewer than 17 in any one week. The 
highest total in one week was in April, when 87 were laid. The 
highest possible number—if each hen laid every day for a week— 
would, of course, be 42, so that for one week the number fell only 
five short of the maximum. 
Perhaps the most important matter in this instance is the 
simplicity of the feeding arrangements. A warm mash was given 
in the morning, composed of one-third broad bean and the rest 
middlings, maize meal and fish meal in equal parts. Such a 
menu is, in my opinion, just as likely to be successful as the more 
elaborate menu provided by X. In the evening mixed grain 
—chiefly wheat and oats—was fed, and an ample supply of green 
stuff was always provided. This proves that poultry-keeping 
can be reduced to so simple a matter that an intelligent boy or 
girl, once started, could be as successful with a small flock as the 
most erudite professor of fowl culture. 
It is perhaps necessary to state once again that all soft foods 
should be fed in troughs made of wood or galvanised iron. To 
throw the food on the ground is wasteful and insanitary. All 
grain should be buried in the litter to make the birds scratch for 
it. Scratching is a provision of nature for making the fowl work 
for her food. A hen is never so happy as when scratching and 
finding the coveted grains. The exercise keeps the hen in good 
condition, and, above all, prevents her from becoming fat and lazy. 
It is the lean, well-fed hen that lays eggs. The fat hen will 
never pay her way, and if one should get chronically fat, do not 
hesitate to get rid of her. Otherwise she will soon “eat her 
head off” and diminish your profits. 
