DRY-MASH FEED 147 
Laying Competition the feeding of the fowls cost 24d. per head 
per week. That was in 1914-1915. During this period poultry- 
keepers who favoured dry mash were feeding their flocks at 14d. 
per week, thus was there a clear saving of 1d. per week per 
bird. Think of what this means in a flock of several thousand 
birds. 
When food was at least 50 per cent. dearer towards the end of 
1916, I was feeding my birds on dry mash at a cost of 24d. per 
bird per week, and I had to buy everything excepting the grass 
which the birds picked up in the runs. I reckon that dry-mash 
feeding costs from 10 to 15 per cent. less than wet mash in 
mere material, apart altogether from the question of labour. 
But dry mash has still another and severer test—Does it 
produce as many eggs per bird as the wet-feed system ? 
It is round this question that the controversy roars and rages. 
It is so difficult to get all the facts. One man’s experience, too, 
may honestly differ from another’s. Some may have tried dry 
mash and found his egg supply falling off. I am willing to concede 
that there may be such cases, although, personally, they have 
not come within my knowledge. It is quite reasonable to suppose 
that if hens have been fed on wet mash for a year or more and then 
suddenly given the dry feed, the egg supply may diminish. Fowls 
are not merely machines. They respond to the various stimuli 
presented, and a totally new method of feeding may temporarily, 
at least, upset their creative organs. In a few instances the new 
feed may actually result in fewer eggs. That much is possible, 
but again I must qualify the admission by the statement that 
I have not known of such instances. In nearly all cases where 
moderately young birds fed on the old system have been trans- 
ferred to dry mash, the result after a few weeks has been to 
stimulate the egg supply. Just for a fortnight or so the fowls 
may not do quite so well, but they soon adapt themselves to the 
new conditions and eggs are at least as plentiful as they were under 
the old regime. 
With older birds—say over two years old—it is not worth while 
making a radical change in their dietary. It is well known that a 
