110 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



Possibilities of a Town Lot 



Have you any idea what returns one dozen laying pullets or 

 hens would give you? I have, for I have kept that number on a 

 town lot. I have not an accurate account of all the eggs laid, but 

 I know there were over two thousand in one year, more than 

 enough to supply a family of six with delicious fresh eggs and to 

 raise between fifty and sixty young fowls for frying and roasting, 

 besides the old ones for stews for "poulet au ris," a French dish 

 of which we are extremely fond. 



Nine-tenths of the home owners have sufficient space in their 

 back yards to produce enough chickens and eggs to supply their 

 own families, and in this way greatly lessen the expense of living, 

 or in other words, make enough to pay their meat and grocery 

 bills, or else give them all the fresh eggs they can consume with 

 a nice fry always available for Sunday dinner or when a friend 

 unexpectedly drops in. 



I will give you a formula for feeding hens on a town lot which I 

 will guarantee will give you eggs in abundance and at all seasons. 

 It is easy to feed, for all you have to do is to mix it dry in a big 

 box and dip up half a bucket, once or twice a week and fill a box 

 or hopper full of it as the need is. It is quite dry and will keep any 

 length of time. 



Formula for Balanced Ration 



Mix by measure two parts bran, one part corn-meal, one part 

 oat-meal, one part alfalfa meal, one part beef scraps. Keep some 

 of this in a box or hopper or bucket — dry, perfectly dry — always 

 before the hens. This dry food in the hopper lasts quite a long 

 time, for the hens prefer the table scraps which are fed to them 

 only once a day (at night) and they like lawn clippings, but this 

 dry feed keeps them in just the right condition for egg production 

 — neither too fat nor too thin. 



If you do not want to take the trouble to mix this for yourself, 

 you can go to any of the poultry supply houses and buy the food 

 already mixed. This food when put up by reliable firms is what is 

 called the "balanced ration"— that is, it contains the elements of 

 the egg — and when the hens are fed this they simply cannot help 

 laying. They are egg machines which turn the properly balanced 

 ration into eggs. 



