THE FEEDS 355 



fiber, 7.46 per cent.; fat, 1.55 per cent. No data concerning 

 digestible nutrients are available. 



Turnips and Rutabagas. — ^While these are a good feed, they 

 are not as good a source of succulence as mangels, because 

 they do not yield so highly per acre, are poorer keepers, and 

 if fed in excess may give a strong taste to the eggs. Also, 

 cooking is necessary to make them palatable. They are 

 useful, however, to feed in the fall, if enough mangels are not 

 obtainable to last the entire winter. 



Mineral Constituents. — Eight and six-tenths per cent, of the 

 dry matter of the fowl and 35.6 per cent, of the dry matter 

 of the whole egg are ash, or mineral matter. It can therefore 

 be readily seen that it is necessary to supply mineral matter 

 in a form that may be assimilated by the fowl, for the rapid 

 upbuilding of the bones in the growing chick and the for- 

 ination of shell on eggs. It is also necessary that mineral 

 matter in a hard form not easily assimilable be furnished for 

 the purpose of crushing and grinding the feed in the gizzard 

 so that digestive juices may act upon it with ease. 



Bone (Granulated). — The phosphate of lime is as desirable 

 for the formation of bone in growing chicks as the carbonate 

 of lime is in the ration of the laying hen for the formation of 

 the egg shell. 



The customary form for furnishing it is granulated bone. 

 This is a by-product of the packing-house and consists of 

 animal bones, from which all the gristle and grease have been 

 removed, ground to a suitable size varying from powder to 

 the size of a grain of corn. 



Rock phosphate (floats) has sometimes been urged as a 

 more desirable source of phosphate than bone. H. J. 

 Wheeler,* and Hartwell and Kirkpatrick,'' both found that 

 ground bone was a better source than the rock phosphate. 



Bartlett' found that the addition of 7 per cent, bone ash 

 to a ration consisting wholly of vegetable matter gave a 

 slightly higher digestion coefficient than when the mixture 

 was fed without it. Bolte^ reports that the addition of bone 



' New York Bulletin No. 242. ^ Rhode Island Bulletin No. 145. 



' Maine Bulletin No. 184. * Rhode Island Bulletin No. 126. 



