HOW I BEGAN AS AN EGG-FARMER 67 
was good enough to send me is published here for the first time. 
I am giving the whole of the details for several reasons—to show 
the careful way in which Mr Hall kept his accounts. He gives 
the quantities and prices of everything bought and sold. Every 
egg and every bird is accounted for, and the whole statement is 
a model of what a balance-sheet should be. It is interesting 
to show that it was signed by Mr G. H. Garrad, Agricultural 
Organiser for Kent. 
There is only one peculiarity in Mr Hall’s food-stuffs that I wish 
to draw attention to. It will be seen that he used 81 ewt. of 
middlings and only 1 ewt. of bran. I use exactly the same 
quantity of bran as I used of middlings, though if I include 
maize meal, and bracket it with middlings, then I use one half 
bran to one of the other two meals. To all intents and pur- 
poses Mr Hall did not use bran at all, for an odd hundredweight 
bears no relation of consequence to 81 cwt. of middlings. Mr Hall’s 
results show that bran is not a factor necessary to success, but it 
need not imply that bran is not a highly economical and efficient 
food. Bran and middlings are simply the outer and inner casings 
of wheat. Both have their special qualities. Bran, with its larger 
percentage of phosphates, is better for making bone, and middlings, 
with its larger percentage of protein, is better for fattening. Of 
recent years bran has come into great favour among egg-farmers, 
and I certainly think that it ought to be largely used. 
Mr Hall did well, I think, to use wheat and whole maize in almost 
equal proportions. It has been demonstrated that maize can be 
fed much more largely than is generally supposed without causing 
liver trouble. It is only during the three or four hottest months 
of the year that whole maize should be discarded. From November 
to February, inclusive, few fowls—especially light breeds—would 
come to harm if whole maize formed their only grain diet. At 
the same time it is better to vary the diet, and I would feed, when 
prices permitted, oats, dari and wheat at all seasons of the year. 
The following is Mr Hall’s balance-sheet. It deserves careful 
study. 
