Money in Broilers and Squabs. 55 



have found it excellent, it being a regular "Mellin's Food" for them. 

 Just what this_ Chick Manna contains we do not know, but we do 

 know that by its use we have had stronger chicks, quicker growth, 

 and less loss than by anything else that we ever fed. This is a 

 rather strong testimonial, and it is given without the knowledge of 

 the manufacturer, but we deem it our duty to speak of a meritorious 

 irticle when we find one. 



In an experiment made last year with Spratts Patent Poultry 

 VIeal, we also had excellent results. The article in particular that 

 we used was Spratt's Chick Meal, No. 5, which is a cooked food 

 manufactured by Spratt's Patent for the special purpose of rearing 

 young chicks from the egg to maturity, but in the broiler business 

 ts use is recommended for a few days or say until the end of the 

 diird week, after which its use may be gradually discontinued, but 

 this is only on account of the expense. 



In a personal letter to the writer, T. Farrer Rackham, East 

 Orange, N. J., says : 



"It is all very well for the mixed grain advocates to claim that a 

 young chick does not want cooked food, but twenty years of prac- 

 tical experience has proved to me that you can rear a heavier per- 

 centage of better and bigger chicks if they are started on a cooked 

 food, than you can under any other circumstances, and if there is 

 any living man that doesn't believe it, I am willing to enter into a 

 contest with him, and can back my opinion pretty heavily before 1 

 stop. Of course, I feed grains alternating the feeds: Spratt's at 

 one feed and the grain at the next. 



"The man who mixes together a certain number of dried grains 

 ■:laims that these are the foods and that they do better on them. 

 This is all buncombe. There is just enough truth in it to bear out 

 .he old adage : 'little knowledge is a dangerous thing.' 



"Young chicks in their wild and natural condition do not eat 

 cooked foods, but then they are not hatcked during the months of 

 October and March, and they are hatched at a time when the sur- 

 roundings are full of things that can only be imitated by cooked 



Loods." 



Some interesting data on the subject of feeding chicks, is also 

 Tiven in the report of the Maine Experiment Station, as follows : 



"For feed for young chicks we make bread by mixing three parts 

 cornmeal, one part wheat bran, and one part wheat middlings or 

 flour, with skim milk or water, mixing it very dry, and salting as 

 jsual for bread. It is baked thoroughly, and when well done, if it 

 ■s dry enough so as to crumble, it is broken up and dried out in the 

 oven, and then ground in a mortar or" mill. The infertile eggs are 

 hard'boiled and ground, shell and all, in a sausage mill. About one 

 -part of ground egg and four parts of the bread crumbs are rubbed 

 together until the egg is well divided. This bread makes up about 

 one-half of the food of the chicks until they are five or six weeks old. 

 £ are always used with it for the first one or two weeks, and 

 then fine sifted beef scrap is mixed with the bread. 



