CHICKEN-REARING 83 
get the very best chicken mixture you can buy. It is composed of 
small seeds of various kinds, including wheat in minute propor- 
tions. If there is no fine grit among the chick food add a little 
yourself. Coarse sand will do. Strange to say, the chicks like 
sand, and tiny bits of flint. You see the chicken has no teeth— 
never will have—and it needs something hard, brittle and rough 
to grind its food to pulp with. The food picked up remains in the 
crop, where it is all churned up with the flint and then slowly 
digested. The crop is simply a large pouch low down in the neck 
of the chicken into which the food is shovelled, pending the 
process of digestion. 
On page 96 is a rough and ready diagram of various parts of a 
chicken’s anatomy, which will show better than anything I can 
write how the food travels on its way down the digestive track. 
(1) The mouth; (2) the throat, through which the food passes 
to (8) the crop, which is a storage tank where the food rests until 
the gizzard (5) is ready for it. Between the crop and gizzard, 
where the food is ground, there is an enlargement called the 
stomach. At (6) is shown the small intestine, to which is fastened 
the unassimilated yolk (7). Through the little opening at (8) this 
yolk keeps passing into the intestine, where it is absorbed into the 
chick’s system. Thus you will see that when food is given before 
the yolk is entirely assimilated you have food coming from two 
directions, each kind battling against the other. At (9), the 
cecum, or lower intestine, you will note two tube-like extensions. 
These are the places where worms may lodge, and are the seat of 
many bowel troubles with the older fowls. Over-feeding crams 
the cecum full, and this condition is generally indicated by a 
pasted-up vent (10). 
Probably eighty per cent. of the mortality in rearing is caused 
by improper feeding, and the greatest cause of mischief is when you 
moisten the food. I believe I am right in saying that there would 
be practically no intestinal troubles if absolutely dry food were 
placed before the chickens. Place good clean water before them 
and let the chicks do the moistening themselves. They know 
exactly what is required. We don’t. I am perfectly well aware 
