THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 129 



Pint 

 measures. 



Four pints of oats, after being boiled to bursting, filled 7 



Four pints of barley, after beinj* boiled to bursting, filled. . . . 10 

 Four pints of buckwheat, after being boiled to bursting, filled 14 

 Four pints of maize, alter being boiled to bursting, filled above 15 

 Four pints of wheat, after being boiled to bursting, filled a 



little more than - 10 



Four pints of rye, after being boiled to bursting, filled nearly 15 



Rice swells considerably more by boiling than any 

 of these six sorts, but it is rarely given to poultry, ex- 

 cept for fattening, under the notion that it tends to 

 whiten the flesh. 



For the purpose of ascertaining whether the boiling 

 altered the preference of fowls for any of the particular 

 sorts, experiments, varied in every possible way, simi- 

 lar to those detailed above, were made by M. Reau- 

 mur. The fowls were furnished with two, three, four, 

 five, and six different sorts, sometimes all the compart- 

 ments of the feeding box being rilled with burst grain, 

 each different from the other, and sometimes each sort 

 of grain filled two of the compartments, one of them 

 having nothing but boiled, and another nothing but 

 dry grain. All that could be collected from these re- 

 peated experiments was, that the greater number of 

 fowls prefer boiled grain to raw, though there are 

 many of them which show a preference to the dry 

 grain, on certain days, and no permanency could be dis- 

 covered in the preference shown for any sort of burst 

 grain. Some fowls, for instance, which one day pre- 

 ferred boiled wheat, would on other days make choice 

 of buckwheat, maize, oats, or barley, and sometimes, 

 though more seldom, even of rye ; but rye, either 

 boiled or raw, is the least favorite sort of grain. It 

 follows as an important conclusion from such experi- 

 ments, that we may make choice of the sort of grain 

 which happens to be cheapest, without much, if any, 

 disadvantage ; always excepting rye, when other sorts 

 are to be had on reasonable terms. 



Other experiments were required to show whether 

 there is any economy, or the contrary, in feeding poul- 

 6* 



