SUPPLY MINERAL SUBSTANCES 493 



An old-fashioned remedy was to apply something very bitter 

 to the plumage, such as oil of aloes, but in the writer's experience 

 this practice was little more than a faith cure; the fowls continue 

 to pluck the aloe- flavored feathers as though they considered 

 this bitterness a relish. The nearest approach to a successful 

 method for controlling the vice is to cut the tip of the lower 

 part of the beak, which tends to prevent the fowl from getting a 

 firm grip on the feather. 



Occasionally feather pulling is developed by lice and mites, 

 consequently the caretaker should investigate his fowls for these 

 pests and treat them accordingly. The important measure 

 adopted should be a well-balanced ration, one that contains skim 

 milk, beef scrap, fish scrap, meat bone, vegetables or green feed, 

 and frequently varied. A piece of fresh beef hung from a nail 

 where the hens will have to jump for it slightly is one of the 

 surest tricks for dissipating the feather pulling habit. 



Failure to furnish the flock with a liberal supply of mineral 

 substances is one of the contributing causes of crop bound and 

 indigestion. Nature has not endowed birds with teeth as a 

 means of masticating their food, but she has given them the 

 equivalent in the gizzard. This is a tough, muscular organ, so 

 situated that all food taken into the mouth must pass through it. 

 When the food is received in the crop it remains there until 

 soaked and acted upon by a secretion similar to that of the saliva 

 in the mouth of animals. This partially digested food gradually 

 leaves the crop and passes into the gizzard, where it is ground 

 up, and thence it goes to the intestines, where, after being acted 

 upon by other fluids, it passes on and the nutriment is absorbed. 



Supply Grit. — We know that the gizzard is marvelously strong 

 when provided with sharp grit, for it is the rotary action of these 

 grindstones that crushes and masticates the solids. Hard, sharp 

 substances are necessary, and without them the harder parts of 

 the food are not digested. Husks and green food accumulate 

 between the crop and the gizzard, and frequently cause a stop- 

 page so that nothing but liquids can pass. In time this passage 

 is completely obstructed, and the result is a sour or bound crop. 



