52 Money in Broilers and Squabs. 



twice a day. Mr. Duston finds it pays well to feed skim milk. He 

 is able to buy it at 5 cents for 8| quarts. The sand floor of the 

 brooder is kept clean. 



The second week the feed is about the same, except that they 

 are fed a little dough, one-third cornmeal, two-thirds bran sea- 

 soned with a little salt and pepper and mixed with boiling water. 

 This mash is made semi-dry, not sloppy. -The soft food and grains 

 are fed alternately. The third week, they get a change in the shape 

 of cracked wheat alternating with the. other grains. The chicks are 

 allowed to run on the ground outside when they are a week old, and 

 after the second week they go out every day unless it is stormy. 

 When outdoors during the cold weather they are made to exercise 

 by driving them around, or by feeding them a handful of millet seed. 

 The program of the third week is continued for four weeks 

 as follows : Early in the morning a feed of hard grain, then a feed 

 of chopped, raw potatoes made by pulping them in a meat chopper. 

 A little later is given a feed of raw cabbage cut in strips. At nine 

 o'clock a feed of scalded mash as previously described. This is fed 

 on tin plates 14 in. in diameter and | in. deep. These are cleaned 

 by a small shovel before another feed. The leavings are not fed 

 again but go into the swill tubs for the pigs. Two hours later an- 

 other feed of mash is given and again at one o'clock and at three 

 o'clock. There are plates enough so that all the chickens have their 

 chance. The dish is taken away before the chickens have eaten quite 

 all they would like. The last feed at five o'clock, or just before 

 dark, is fine cracked corn. 



When this program has been continued four weeks, the chick- 

 ens are six weeks old, and they must be finished off in ten days or 

 two weeks to weigh two pounds and to show good color and ap- 

 pearance. To get the most color and flesh in the least time the corn 

 meal and bran mash previously described is thickened by adding 

 all cottonseed meal that can be stirred in, also adding a little cheap 

 molasses. This feed will give a fine yellow skin, but if continued 

 more than two weeks the chickens will get "off their feed," and 

 lose flesh and health. 



This ration should only be given to finish them for market. 

 The chickens are made to eat all of it they possibly can and not 

 lose, their appetite. For making roasters the regular feed is con- 

 tinued up to the last two weeks. This high feeding method is not 

 considered desirable for raising breeding stock, but only for 

 chickens for market. 



In 1892 we gave our experience in Farm-Poultry, Boston, 

 Massachusetts, from which we make the following extracts: 



An incubator may hatch ever so well, and a brooder do the 

 finest kind of hovering, yet if the chicks are not properly fed, there 

 certainly cannot be any kind of success. Good feeding tells. There 

 is no fixed bill of fare, and in taking up this subject, we can. only 

 give our own experience, and what we have observed on other farms 

 in Hammonton. 



