6 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK. 



of diet. Like milk, an egg is a complete food in itself, containing everything 

 necessary for the development of a perfect animal, as is manifest from the fact 

 that a chick is formed frou; it. It seems a mystery how muscles, bones, feath. 

 ers, and everything that a chicken requires for its perfect development are 

 made from the yelk and white of an egg ; but such is the fact, and it shows how 

 complete a food an egg is. It is also easily digested, if not damaged in cooking.' , 

 Indeed, there is no more concentrated and nourishing food than eggs. The 

 albumen, oU, and saline matter, are, as in milk, in the right proportion for sus- 

 taining animal life. Two or three boiled eggs, with the addition of a slice or 

 two of toast, will make a breakfast sufficient for a man, and good enough for a 

 king. 



"Accoj-ding to Dr. Edward Smith, in his treatise on 'Food,' an egg weighing an 

 ounce and three quarters contains one hundred and twenty grains of carbon, and 

 seventeen and three quarter grains of nitrogen, or 15.26 per cent, of carbon 

 and two per cent of nitrogen. The valu§ of one pound of eggs, as food for sus- 

 taining the active forces of the body, is to the value of one pound of lean meat 

 as 1584 to 900. As a flesh-j>rodacer, one pound of eggs is about equal to one 

 pound of beef. 



"A hen may be calculated to consume one bushel of corn yearly, arid to lay 

 ten dozens or fifteen pounds of eggs. This is equivalent to saying that three and 

 one tenth pounds of com will produce, when fed to a hen, five sixths of a pound 

 of eggs ; but five sixths of a pound of pork requires about five pounds of corn 

 for its production. Taking into account the nutriment in each, and the com- 

 parative prices of the two on an average, the pork is about three times as costly 

 a food aS the eggs, while it is certainly less healthful." 



One of the reasons why the poultry business has received no more attention 

 is that it cannot be made a large business. The barn-yard fowl is so constituted 

 that it does not thrive when massed in large numbers, but only reaches its high- 

 est perfection when allowed to follow the customs of its pt'ogehitors in the Indian 

 jungles, and wander at will in small flocks. This peculiarity has prevented the 

 profitable handling of poultry as a specialty, except in the way of breeding im- 

 proved stock to be sold at fancy prices, since it has not yet been found possible 

 to collect a large number of fowls into one management and maintain them in 

 health, without a greater outlay than would be justified by the returns obtained. 

 Under the conditions of ordinary barn-yard poultry-keeping the fowls gather 

 most of their subsistence from materials which would otherwise be wasted ; 

 while the time occupied in their care, being chiefly that of otherwise unproduc- 

 tive members of the household, is not felt ; consequently, whatever they may 

 yield in the way of eggs and flesh is so much clear gain. When, however, the 

 natural and waste supplies of food are exhausted ; that is, the insects, weed-seeds 

 and grass obtained upon the range, and the waste food picked up in the barn- 

 yard, scratched out of the manure heap, or out of the waste thrown from the 

 household table, an element of outlay begins to enter into the calculation which 

 may become so great as to counterbalance all the profit obtained. 



It is hoped that this book may be the means of suggesting such methods of 

 economizing in the care and feeding of poultry, that these expenses may be so 

 reduced as to render the enlarging of the flock on every farm, not only a, justi4- 



