RATIONS AND METHODS OF FEEDING 327 



The Pennsylvania Experiment Station says: "There never 

 can be a balanced ration that will hold for all sorts and condi- 

 tions of laying hens. Flocks differ as to age, development, 

 breed, manner of housing, etc. 



"Of the different grains corn is the most fed, but it is a fat- 

 and heat-producing food and should be always so viewed. 

 The great problem in open-front houses is to keep Leghorns in 

 them from 'pouting' in very cold weather, and there is no one 

 grain that we have that will so cheaply and effectually keep a 

 Leghorn pullet warm and happy as corn. Corn is the grain 

 most greedily eaten by chickens, and because of its size they 

 can quickly fill up. This and its make-up has a strong tend- 

 ency to make hens fed heavily on it overfat. From a close 

 study it must be said that hens relish corn merely on account 

 of its size. When cracked it seems to have no special attrac- 

 tion over other grains, and allows them to eat it the same way, 

 two reasons why corn should always be fed only as cracked 

 corn. Wheat is the one best chicken grain, and yet if one grain 

 and one only is to be fed corn turns out to be better than wheat. 

 Good heavy oats rank next to wheat. Light oats and barley 

 are a delusion, and have so much fiber that a hen will waste a 

 lot of good value getting rid of it, or she can eat enough only 

 to keep herseK going and perhaps do a Uttle at laying besides. 

 "Too many scratch feeds contain much of this stuff, besides 

 shrunken wheat, poor buckwheat and a lot of corn-hulls, etc. 

 Some kaffix and sunflower seeds are added, the whole put up to 

 sell at a low price to meet competition. A hen to do heavy 

 laying must have a large amount of the cleanest, soundest 

 grain, the hardest red wheat and the plumpest oats, and the 

 cleanest, soundest cracked corn. This is very much the cheap- 

 est to buy. 



"Formula for home-mixed scratch feed for Leghorns in cold 

 weather : 



Cracked corn 400 pounds. 



Wheat 300 



Hulled oats 100 " 



Buckwheat 100 



Whole oats 50 " 



Pearl millet 50 " 



Nutritive ratio, 1 :7.6. 



