78 FOOD. 



pepper, when given in sparing, quantities, is very good for them. 

 Rice can often be purchased very cheaply; many grocers sell 

 ■what they term "fowl-rice," but if you are tolerably near a sea^ 

 port you can very often get the. chance of buying damaged 

 "cargo" rice, which, though possibly just a little injured by sea- 

 water, is still excellent food for poultry. I have ranked rice 

 first because of its cheapness. Of the different sorts of com 

 barley is the least expe^ire, but it is too heating to feed fowls 

 on it alone; it should be ground into meal, suzed with water 

 and fine bran or scraps, and given in a crumbly state, not too 

 moist nor yet too lumpy. 



Cooked or prepared food is good for all live stock of all de- 

 scriptions, for experience proves it to be more nutritious from 

 the changes effected, and therefore more readily digested. One 

 writer advises the following mixture: — 



One peck of fine middlings and half a peck of barley-meal 

 placed in a coarse earthenware pan and baked for one hour, then 

 boiled water is poured in and the whole stirred together until it 

 becomes a crumbly mass — or th^ baked middlings can be mixed 

 ■with rice, previously boiled — two meals of this mixture might be 

 g^ven each day, and one meal of grain. 



Oats are good for laying hens, bat to my mind are best ground; 

 it is not at first aJEavorite food with poultry, but they soon ac- 

 quire the taste, and it is even more nourishing than barley, but 

 also more expensive. Oatmeal is considered wonderfully good 

 and fattening diet, and in Ireland is generally used for x>oultry — 

 that is, when they are kept up for market, the meal is mixied 

 ■with milk and mashed potatoes. In oats there is as great an 

 amount of starch as in barley, more flesh-forming substance, and 

 more fet-producing matter. 



Light Wheat is the grain I prefer for poultry-food; but, alasl it 

 is not easy to procure, though it is cheap as far as price goes. 

 If you have a farmer living near you he may perhaps let you have 



