Feeding 71 



tions and circumstances, may cause the droppings to become 

 watery and be of a grayish-white or cream color. Under 

 these conditions the hens will not lay to amount to anything, 

 and instead of getting an egg a day you would not get an 

 egg a month. When hens are out of condition, with indiges- 

 tion, it is not very easy to make them lay on any ration, but 

 there is no reason for them to be very much out of condition 

 if they have been raised on Ration No. 14. When hens have 

 watery droppings return to Ration No. 11, and they will 

 become well. What they needed was the right ration, not 

 drugs, because it was probably the combination that caused 

 the trouble. Remove the cause; do not add some drug. When 

 beginning to feed this ration, those people who do not think 

 that feed is as important as I say it is should watch these 

 hens very closely and see the wonderful change that takes 

 place in their cravings and appetite. When you observe this, 

 you will realize how important little changes are, and how 

 much science there is in feeding hens. If the hens know the 

 value of wheat and corn you will see that where before they 

 did not care for corn they will now fight for it, especially 

 in the pens getting the most meat, although nothing has 

 been added to the mash but one-third of oats and middlings. 

 It is important to know this when feeding large flocks, for 

 you know just what craving a certain combination of grains 

 will create, and how to take advantage of that fact. 



By these experiments we find what a wonderful effect little 

 changes have upon the hens, and understand how poultrymen 

 continually work in the dark, blunder on in "blindness, and 

 never learn. We find out the technical points of value and 

 get down to the practical and scientific points of feeding. 



You see how many people continue to make a failure of 

 the poultry business, and the value of these experiments is 

 that I have showed you in a very few lines how a very slight 



