396 



POULTRY PRODUCTION 



Owing to the action of acid in the milk or the lack of 

 calcium in the ration, or both, the bones of milk-fed chickens 

 are usually very brittle and easily broken. This, in connec- 

 tion with the fact that milk-fed birds shrink very badly 

 when shipped alive, precludes milk fattening on the farm, 

 unless the fowls are also dressed at the farm. It is practically 

 impossible to move fowls that have been fully finished on 

 milk without causing the breakage of legs or wings, so bruising 

 and scarring them that they present an unattractive dressed 

 carcass, and having such a shrinkage that a large part of the 

 gains will be lost. 



Table XXXVII.' — The Results op Milk Feeding Unbeb Packlno- 

 HOtrsE Conditions. 



' Bureau of Animal Industry, Bulletin No. 140. 



