FOOD. 81 



SteonA meal, midday, bf soft food, pioHngg, anoli as bread, 

 sops, meat and fish scraps, with eitlier barley, oats, or Indian 

 meal mixed with It, or else boiled rioe, peppered in winter. 



Third meal, before going to roost, grain. I vary the food as 

 much as possible, sometimes giving two meals of grain and one 

 of soft food, at other times two meals of soft mixture and one 

 of grain, and at least once a week give chopped liver, well boiled 

 but fresh — ^not in the horrible putrid state some people suggest. 

 I could not fancy eating a fowl fed on carrion myself, though I 

 know it is frequently done; but the flesh on fowls so fed must, 

 one would naturally thiuk, be gross and rank-tasting. 



Wat&r shovild be plentifully supplied fresh and pure and the 

 pans refilled frequently in summer; in winter all water-pans 

 should be emptied out at night, as, if the water freezes in them 

 they often crack or break. 



Lime and mortar ruhMsh or broken oyster shells should be freely 

 scattered about the yards, also gravel and small stones. Fowls 

 like to pick such things up; besides, it is necessary that they eat 

 some shell-forming material or their eggs will be soft, which is 

 very often the case if such substances are not provided. I do 

 not believe in cooking or grinding all the grain foods, and should 

 certainly give wheat-tailings or inferior small barley in its 

 natural state. If the birds could not digest it they would not 

 have been provided by Kature with an elaborate apparatus for 

 softening and grinding it. If we feed entirely on moist food 

 even fowls in confinement, we must weaken the action of the 

 ^zzard by not giving it enough work to do. The two extremes 

 of feeding entirely on cooked and moistened food, or entirely on 

 grain or hard food, are both mistakes; vary the food, and allow 

 only one meal of solid grain, which should be given either as 

 the first or last meal, but do not so completely interfere with 

 T^ature's laws, as to weaken an organ which is purposely pro- 

 vided to render the natural food wholesome. By allowing 



