370 POULTRY PRODUCTION 



They further found that fowls did not seem to make 

 any appreciable use of coarse floor litter to supply a defi- 

 ciency in the fiber content of a ration; that' the amount of 

 succulence consumed was governed to some extent by the 

 proportion of crude fiber in a ration, and that fowls with 

 unlimited alfalfa or bran will make up rations carrying 

 approximately 3.5 per cent, of crude fiber. 



Composition. — If the best results are to be obtained from 

 feeding, the ration must be complete and properly balanced. 

 If the ration is improperly balanced with regard to the pro- 

 portions of the nutrients, the fowl is compelled to consume 

 a larger amount of one nutrient to secure the necessary 

 amount of others. So, in an extremely wide ration, a fowl 

 is cornpelled to consume more carbohydrates than its body 

 requires in order that it may obtain the vital amountsof protein . 



Securing the proper composition not only refers to the 

 proper nutritive ratio, regarding the nitrogenous and non- 

 nitrogenous nutrients, but also the completeness and proper 

 balance between grain, animal food, succulence, ash, grit, 

 charcoal, bone or any other material that may be fed. A 

 ration is balanced when it contains all the nutrients in right 

 proportions. It is complete when it contains, in addition to 

 the nutrients, every material that may produce a desirable 

 nutritive effect. 



Digestibility. — ^The digestibility of feeds has been fully 

 treated elsewhere in another connection. In feeding practice 

 it is necessary to fully appreciate its importance in relation 

 to cost, the need of guarding against too much bulk on the 

 one hand and too great concentration on the other. A ration 

 composed wholly of mangel beets (90 per cent, water) and 

 chopped oat straw might have a nutritive ratio that was 

 approximately correct, but it would be so bulky and ^o 

 lacking in available nutrients that enough energy could not 

 be secured from it to carry on the work of digestion. 



On the other hand, a ration composed entirely of corn 

 and meat scraps would contain so small an amount of 

 bulky material that the intestines would not be sufficiently 

 distended to allow for thorough digestion and prevent 

 constipation. 



