RELIABLE POULTRV REMEDIES 



it is recommended to feed the most of the whole grains in deep litter. There 

 has been a good deal of controversy between the advocates of the moist mash 

 method of feeding and those who prefer the dry method, and a great deal 

 may be said in favor of both plans. Where fowls are to be forced for egg pro- 

 duction, the claim has been made, and results seem to sustain it, that more 

 ■eggs can be obtained by feeding highly concentrated moist mashes than 

 when the birds have an exclusively dry grain ration. However, it is a fact 

 that it is more easy for the beginner to keep fowls in good health when fed 

 on an exclusively dry grain ration than where mash foods are fed; also where 

 mash foods are fed there is more or less of a tendency to bowel trouble, since 

 mash fed fowls almost invariably void large quantities of soft, more or less 

 watery droppings, while the stools of birds fed exclusively on dry grains are 

 usually of better consistency and indicate a more healthy condition of the 

 digestive organs. This is not surprising, because the natural and normal 

 method of feeding is on hard, dry grains. 



For little chicks, the dry grain chick food plan of ifeeding has almost 

 entirely superseded the moist mash or cooked food methods, and we have 

 yet to learn of any poultry raiser who, after once trying the dry plan of 

 feeding small chicks, ever returned to the old style dough and mash mix- 

 tures. There are fewer losses with the dry method, less labor, and equally 

 good, if not better, chicks, which seems sufficient argument in its favor. 

 Cooked foods are not to be recommended for poultry, except by way of var- 

 iety, since cooking partially, if not wholly, destroys the anti-scorbutic 

 properties of the food, and birds fed for a long time on cooked foods have 

 less power to resist disease and are more prone to, digestive disorders than 

 those fed on raw grains. 



A supply of meat food is essential to health, and a most satisfactory 

 plan is to keep good, clean, pure beef scrap constantly before the birds. 

 Green food is essential to health at all seasons and should be supplied in 

 the form of lettuce and cabbage heads, fed whole, split beets and mangels 

 hung up for the birds to pick at, thus forming an incentive to healthful 

 exercise, as well as furnishing a desirable addition to the ration. When- 

 ever practicable, a grass run should be provided. In cold weather cut 

 clover, which has been steamed or scalded to soften it, should be fed in 

 troughs daily or mixed with the mash food. Never lose sight of the fact 

 that green food and meat food are, in addition to grain, necessary to the 

 health of the fowl. A little salt in the moist mash promotes better diges- 

 tion and serves to favor more ready absorption of the food. Where mash 

 is fed, it should be given in clean troughs, which must be thoroughly cleaned 

 at frequent intervals. 



• MEDICINES AND TONICS 



Tonics and medicinal foods, while they will undoubtedly help fowls 

 of unsound constitution, are not desirable, since, if we are to have and 

 keep healthy fowls, we must not breed from birds that require constant 

 dosing. Healthy fowls will do their best without the use of condiments. 

 Feeding condition powders and the Uke to healthy birds that are already 



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