RATIONS AND METHODS OF FEEDING 213 



ration often eat so much green food that they have no appetite for 

 grain and will not consume enough to furnish the material for 

 constant egg production. In such cases the only way to keep up 

 egg production is to cut off or diminish the supply of green food. In 

 warm winter weather the regular ration, suitable for normal winter 

 conditions, may become a forcing ration. Poultry in winter quar- 

 ters are rarely supplied with all the green food they will eat. In 

 sudden changes from cold to warm weather they continue to eat 

 the usual quantity of the heavy winter ration, and many birds very 

 quickly break down under it. 



Forced feeding is almost universal among poultrymen.^ All 

 regular, good feeding is in a sense forced feeding. Even under 

 natural conditions, with opportunity to balance their own rations, 

 full-fed poultry develop faster and better individually, but at the 

 cost of shorter life and reduction of vitality in the offspring. The 

 poultryman's object is to get as much as possible out of the birds 

 in the shortest possible time ; that is, to market as soon as possible 

 those destined primarily for the table, and to keep laying and breed- 

 ing poultry only as long as they are highly productive. He forces 

 by feeding, but not (intentionally) to the danger point, just as a 

 careful horseman often drives his horse much faster and farther 

 than the horse would go of its own accord, yet avoids overdriving. 



Forced feeding is done not only by increasing the proportions 

 of proteins and fats in rations, but also by increasing the quantity 

 of the food consumed. In the cramming method of fattening, 

 the birds are actually forced to eat larger quantities of food than 

 they would take for themselves. The use of a variety of foods, 

 and of variations in the form in which food is given, has the 

 effect of inducing poultry to eat more food. This is much the 

 safest way of forced feeding, and the only one adapted to long 

 periods. It may be carried to its limits without perceptible injury 

 to vigorous birds. 



1 The usual declaration of the poultryman describing methods or reporting 

 results, that he does no forced feeding, is erroneous, though not always inten- 

 tionally so. There is a great deal of misconception on the subject. Some think 

 that feeding a ration in common use is not forcing. Some call feeding animal food 

 forcing. One foreign authority on feeding calls feeding green bone forcing, but 

 feeding meat meal not forcing, — a most absurd distinction, for of the two the use 

 of meat meal is attended with much greater risk. 



