GRASSES FOR PASTURE 229 



blue grass, red top, low, Dutch or white clover. Other seeds, 

 such as red clover, timothy, alsike and alfalfa, make very good 

 hay, but they are not durable enough for poultry. They are 

 soon killed ofif. 



Swiss chard and lettuce are useful for feeding baby chicks in 

 the early spring. They should be cut into short lengths and fed 

 in small quantities to keep them fresh. 



Onion tops and sliced onions are both excellent for chicks. If 

 you have a brood which is inclined to mope around, out of sorts, 

 so to speak, and you want to put a little "pep" into the chicks, 

 try a few onions sliced fine. In short order the chicks will be 

 tussling and tugging at the slices of onion as though they were 

 bugs or worms. 



Onions are very good for mature stock, too, except that when 

 fed in large quantities to laying hens they are .apt to impart the 

 flavor of the onion to the eggs. 



Beets — mangel wurtzels — is the best all-round vegetable for 

 poultry. They are easy to grow, and keep well for winter feed- 

 ing. From twenty to twenty-five pounds per day per hundred 

 hens is about the correct ration. Shredding the beets by means 

 of a root cutter is the best way to feed them; or they may be cut 

 into large pieces and spiked on nails in the poultry houses. Sus- 

 pending the halved beets in a fish net is another way to place this 

 sort of food before fowls. The idea is to keep the beets from being 

 tracked around in the dirt and litter. In cold weather the middle 

 of the day is the only time to feed succulent food, so that it will 

 not freeze and become unpalatable. 



Table XXII. — Wae-Time Rations for Laying Hens Recommended by 

 THE American Egg Laying Contest 

 Scratch Grains Dry Mash 



Pounds Pounds 



Cracked corn 400 Wheat bran 150 



Middlings 150 



Beef scrap 100 



Charcoal 4 



Fine salt 3 



Cabbage is relished by fowls, though it should be fed in modera- 

 tion, lest it impart an objectionable flavor to the eggs. It is 



