VALUE OF ECONOMY 



The old saying, "a penny saved is a penny earned," may well 

 apply to the poultry business. To make money in the business, one 

 must practice economy in every direction. 



Economy in Grain 



First : Economy in buying the food. This is very important. 

 The available grains vary in different places in price; in some 

 localities, for instance, barley is cheaper than wheat, then utilize 

 barley; that is to say if there is a decided difference in the cost, 

 remembering that barley has a husk on it, which is indigestible 

 fiber, and that fowls do not like it as well as wheat, although they 

 eat it readily if rolled, or soaked or sprouted, and the analysis shows 

 the same nutritive ratio as wheat. Again in some places, oats can 

 be obtained very cheaply, and this is a most valuable grain for 

 feeding and building up large, sturdy frames in the young fowls, 

 promoting egg laying and inducing fertility in the eggs. I have 

 great faith in oats — it is good for man, beast or bird, but the husk 

 is the difficulty there. The oats should be scalded or clipped, or 

 better still, hulled, to make it thoroughly available. In Oregon 

 and Washington, oats is less expensive than in the south, and 

 therefore should be freely used there. By commencing the use 

 of it early, the chicks will be vigorous and of large frame. 



Then, again, rice, rice hulls and rice bran are cheap in certain 

 localities, such as in San Francisco and Seattle, where large quanti- 

 ties are imported and cleaned, and these can be had very cheaply 

 and utilized either in the dry or wet mash- In other places where 

 beans and peas are grown in quantities, the refuse of these, which 

 is not worth marketing, can be used most advantageously. 



Broom corn seed is a most excellent food and costs very little. 

 I had in Oklahoma many tons of this, to which the fowls had free 

 access and with green growing winter wheat, a little milk and table 

 scraps, they laid all through the moult and through the winter, 

 notwithstanding the blizzards and zero weather. Nothing seemed 

 to stop their laying, and I attributed it to the broom corn seed. 

 Sorghum seed is equally good. 



Another little economy I found quite good among the little 

 chickens was buying dry or stale bread from the bakeries at 25c 

 a sack weighing 25 pounds. This I took home, cut same in slices 

 and dried in the sun or in the oven, ground in the grist mill and 

 used either moistened or dry, for chickens, turkeys and ducks. 



Economy in Vegetables 



Then, again, there are the various vegetables, many of which 

 can be had for almost nothing. There are "small potatoes." It gen- 

 erally raises a smile to talk of these, but they make a most excel- 

 lent addition and variety to the fowls' bill of fare. Small raw po- 

 tatoes can be chopped up in the chopping bowl in a few minutes, 

 also turnips, carrots and onions, and the outer leaves of cabbage, 



