106 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
GRAIN-SPROUTING 
If you desire an economical home-made sprouter get shallow 
boxes and bore a few holes in the bottom for drainage and spread 
the oats (previously soaked in a pail of warm water for twenty- 
four hours) about 14 inches or 2 inches deep in the bottom of the 
boxes ; the boxes should then be placed in a warm sunny position 
(the top of the fowl-house will do very well) and well watered twice 
a day from a can with a fine rose attached. In cold weather the 
oats sprout better if the boxes are placed in a warm spot in the 
kitchen. On an average, in about a week (more or less according 
to the weather conditions) the oats will have put out roots long 
enough to form the whole contents of the boxes into thick sods 
with light green sprouts about two inches long; this is the best 
time to feed them to the fowls. The sods should be cut out of the 
boxes in pieces as required, and given to the birds in lumps. 
If desired, an apparatus can be bought for sprouting oats at a 
moderate cost, according to size. 
Full directions will be found in all grain-sprouting machines, 
which are so simple that a child can do all that is necessary. Boiled 
wheat is also a good egg-getter, and a nice change for the birds. 
Variety is no doubt of the essence of the contract between man 
and bird in the search for eggs, but it is astonishing what can be 
done with good plain food varied only in the smallest degree. 
Among vegetables, cabbages have a high feeding value, and, 
whether boiled or raw, stand out with lucerne among green stuff 
as an aid to egg-production. I have seen it asserted by those who 
knew what they were talking about that a good pedigree hen will 
do well for a considerable time on cabbage and bran. No doubt, 
but a little fillip of meat will hasten the arrival of the egg. 
If the housewife wants to use household scraps she should try as 
far as possible to make the meat or fish portions about one-fifth 
of the whole. If she has not enough meat she can always make 
up the dfference with meat meal or fish meal, which can be bought 
from any corn-dealer. 
W. Powell Owen says: “ Every pullet, directly it is full grown, 
