FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 175 



I have a letter from Prof. George M. Turpin of the Iowa 

 State College at Ames, in which he gives me the results of their 

 experiments with skim milk and buttermilk. He says : 



"Both skim milk and buttermilk are considered to be among 

 the most valuable poultry foods that we have. In feeding 

 tests carried on at a number of experiment stations in feeding 

 laying stock, a marked increase in the number of eggs produced 

 has resulted in an increase, the increase in some cases amounting 

 to as much as one cent per pound for the milk used. The use oi z\ 

 liberal amount of skim milk or buttermilk for feeding chicks has 

 been found to be one of the best preventatives of mortality among 

 chicks from bowel trouble and other diseases. It is highly recom- 

 mended by all those who have used it. You probably know 

 that either skim milk or buttermilk is made the basis of the 

 ration for finishing poultry for market in practically all of the 

 poultry feeding stations throughout the country. Very few, if 

 any, feeders attempt to finish poultry in these feeding stations 

 without making skim milk or buttermilk the basis of the ra- 

 tion. 



''Prof. Dryden, in charge of the poultry department of the 

 Agricultural College at Corvallis, Oregon, believes that freshly 

 green cut bone is slightly superior to milk for feeding laying 

 hens; but with this exception, I believe practically all of the 

 poultrymen of the country place skim milk and buttermilk first 

 as a source of protein for supplementing the grains used ir 

 poultry feeding." 



Professor Turpin does not state in his letter, does not say 

 whether the milk should be fed sweet or sour, but my experience 

 has been that it should be fed sour. I do not mean by this that 

 it should be kept until it reaches the putrefactive stage, for thq 

 length of time it should be kept should vary according to tem- 

 peratures. In high temperatures, bacteria develop very rapid- 

 ly. Therefore, some attention should be given to the place 

 where your slop barrel is kept. It should never be left in the 

 sun in the hot weather. 



However, there is one thing certain, whether it is pigs or 

 chickens you are feeding, you cannot feed milk sour one time 



