350 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 
unpalatable, two or three feedings of greens per day are better than 
one, where it can be done. In winter when fresh, growing greens 
cannot be had, one has to fall back on sprouted grains, mangels, 
pumpkins, cabbage, potatoes, and steamed alfalfa or clover hay, for 
the supply of succulent vegetable feeds. They are named in the 
order of their preference. Sprouted ¢ grains although equal to other 
; ae — fresh tender greens are only 
; used when fresh green stuff 
from the fields is not to be had 
because of the labor of sprout- 
ing. 
Sprouted oats or barley are 
among the best winter green 
feeds. They are fully equal in 
succulence and tonic value to 
the tender green stuff of sum- 
mer. Oats are better to sprout 
than barley |ccause they do 
not make such a rank growth. 
These grains are sprouted by a 
great many commercial poultry- 
men for feeding early hatched 
chicks as well as grown stock. 
The grains are usually 
sprouted in racks about six feet 
high containing trays two by 
three feet in size and two inches 
deep. The trays are spaced 
about ten inches apart, seven in 
a tier so that there will be one 
tray ready to use each day (Fig. 
103). In starting, a pail of the 
Fic. 103.-—-Rack for sprouting oats; large right size is nearly filled with 
enoueh to provide five hundred laying hens oats at night and the oats 
(Lewis:) covered with luke-warm water. 
The next morning they are dumped in a pile on the top tray and 
left. At night they are spread out so that the tray is level full of 
wet oats to a depth of one inch and another pail of oats put to soak. 
Next morning the top tray of oats is moved down a tray and the other 
tray put on top to receive the oats from the pail. The trays of oats 
are thus moved down one step at a time till by the seventh day the 
