rUK GARDEN AND FIELD. 



477 



larger quantities of nitrogenous matter 

 in other eomnioilities. This may be diu' 

 to better digestibility, or to its power of 

 assisting (hgestion. This siihjeet is, how - 

 ever, beyond the scope of the present 

 article. Fresh waste meat is always pre- 

 ferable to dried or preserved, but it 

 should be well cooked, and is best mixed 

 with bran and pollard or other meal. 



Tlie great value of grenstufT for lay- 

 ing birds has been amply demonstrated 

 of late years, and every poultry keeper 

 should arrange in good titne for his 

 liirds to have a plentiful supply. Lucerne 

 stands high in this respect, and where 

 it cannot he obtained fresh, lucerne hay, 

 well scalded, or chaff, which should also 

 be scalded, should be substituted. This 

 should be mixed with the morning meal. 



One thing the poultry keeper should 

 continually bear in mind, and this is 

 comfort. He should always be on the 

 watch for everything which will tend to 

 the wellbeing of his birds, whose pro- 

 duce will be to a great extent propor- 

 tionate to his care in this direction. 



— Egg Shells. — 

 The commercial fowl, the profitable 

 fowl of to-day, which by domestication 

 and selection — by sitting eggs from the 

 best layers year after year — is an un- 

 natural production, but at the same time 

 it is one of the most protitable produc- 

 tions, if properly treated, for the initial 

 outlay of any stock that can be found 

 on the farm. Quite apart from the ques- 

 tion of ordinary food, is that of grit. 

 Have farmers who keep poultry ever 

 thought of the great strain put upon the 

 birds under present-day conditions? Na- 

 ture intended the bird to lay 14 eggs ; 

 it produces 14 eggshells; 14 frames of 

 chickens. We ask them to produce any- 

 thing from 120 to 200, and in selected 

 laying strains even up to 250 and slightly 

 over that. Therefore they have to pro- 

 duce that number of eggshells. In addi- 

 tion to that it should be remembered the 

 hen lays eggs to produce chickens. No 

 one yet has seen a chicken that did not 

 contain bone. The substance to form 

 the bone in that chicken must be in solu- 

 tion in that egg before it is laid. There- 

 fore in addition to asking a hen to pro- 

 duce anything from 120 to 250 eggs and 

 shells, we are also asking it to produce 

 bone for the frame of that number of 

 chickens. 



— Chickens. — 

 Now just think for one moment what 

 a wonderful machine has been evolved 

 in the modern egglaying hen. Natural 

 feeding cannot apply to her. The natu- 

 ral hen would obtain sufficient lime and 

 other bone forming material from 



grasses and clover, insect life, etc., con- 

 sumed, to store in its system, and at the 

 right time of the year— the spring — be 

 able to supply suflicient to form those 14 

 shells of eggs and frames of chickens. 

 Then it has a spell for the rest of the 

 year to recoup itself for the same exer- 

 tion in the following spring, because it 

 is a fact that a hen can store up in its 

 own body those essential constituents. It 

 will also call on its own frame to a con- 

 siderable extent after it has used up the 

 surplus. The frames of laying hens 

 which have been laying heavily for some 

 time and not been supplied with lime or 

 other frame forming material have been 

 analysed, and it has been found that the 

 hone of a hen is sadly deficient in lime 

 and similar constituent. It has been 

 utilised by the hen in forming the bone 

 of the chicken and eggshell, but it must 

 he admitted there comes a time when 

 that call upon the hen's frame ceases and 

 when it does, eggs are not laid. For- 

 tunately lime is very cheap and easily 

 supplied to the hens. One of the best 

 methods of supplying it is in the form 

 of crushed shell. Unfortunately stores and 

 others now sell shell which is simply 

 gathered on the beach, and in many 

 cases are far too large for the birds to 

 ■swallow, the result being a large propor- 

 tion of the shell is wasted, and possibly 

 the unthinking poultry breeder, seeing 

 this shell still lying about, does not give 

 the birds any more as there is still a 

 quantity in the run, although possibly 

 all that was suitable has been long con- 

 sumed by the birds. The ordinary bro- 

 ken beach shell answers the purpose ad- 

 mirably, as does broken oyster shell. An 

 improved method of using the broken 

 oyster shells is to throw them in with 

 ashes — hot ashes from the fire — it will 

 then be found that the shells can be bro- 

 ken up much easier than otherwise. 

 — Shell Grit. — 

 It should be remembered that shell 

 grit has very little grinding power, there- 

 fore it is necessary to aid the digestion 

 by seeing that the birds are also sup- 

 plied with hard grinding grit in some 

 form. But the shell grit will not do 

 everything, although it will practically 

 form the shell of the egg, and relieve 

 the strain on the hen. We want some- 

 thing more to produce the bone frame 

 of the chicken. And remember whether 

 you are going to hatch chickens or not 

 that bone has got to be available for the 

 possible chick, or the egg will not be 

 laid. This is also a simple and vheap 

 matter to remdey. The ordinary bone, 

 uncooked for preference, is smashed up 

 as fine as possible, to that degree equal 

 to coarse sawdust, and is then given to 

 the fowls. That may be the only thing 



wanting; the only thing which may be 

 preventing your fowls from laying eggs; 

 and remember this, that no matter how 

 well you feefl, how much you feed, how 

 gfiod the (|ualily of the food, how much 

 care and attention you give the birds as 

 regards housing, etc., if the hen has not 

 the surplus of everything required for 

 the formation of the normal egg, it is 

 impossible for her to lay. To come back 

 to the unthinking man who talks about 

 the natural bird which he believes in 

 keeping under natural conditions, he 

 would claim that his natural bird also 

 lays eggs. It does, but it lays the bulk 

 of its eggs, if not all of them, in the 

 spring and summer months. It has then 

 in most cases spring and summer grasses 

 and clover to feed upon. Now they con- 

 tain four times the amount of bone or 

 frame-forming material that any grain 

 does, therefore the birds are scientifi- 

 cally feeding themselves. The birds 

 are at liberty, and have a choice of feed 

 at that time of the year, and they have 

 the natural instinct which teaches them 

 how to balance their rations. If the 

 food you are giving them is of too fat- 

 tening a nature, they would consume a 

 large amount of grass. If it is lacking 

 in nitrogenous matter, they would hunt 

 for insect life, and more readily con- 

 sume those classes of graijis or seeds 

 which is largely made up of those re- 

 quirements. 



4 



Chapman Trap Nest. 



The trap nest idea has been one 

 of the most abused in poultry 

 work for the reason that poultry- 

 men have expected more than the 

 inventors have hitherto been able 

 to accomplish. No one, of course, 

 has questioned the iitility of trap- 

 nests in theory, but no one, as far 

 as we know, has put on the mar- 

 ket anvthing- approaching- a peiiect 

 nest until Mr. Chapman, of Port 

 Pirie, S.A., hit on the idea, which, 

 after a lot of Jiard work and care- 

 ful experiment bore fruit in the 

 .shape of the Chapman Trapnest. 

 There is no doubt that this nest 

 claims to do a lot to help the 

 poultrvman and there is equally 

 no doubt that it does just exactly 

 what^ it claims to do. It appears 

 to us that Mr. Chapman and his 

 friends ,have been particularly care- 

 ful not to overstate the case in 

 anv shape or form. They will be 

 pleased to send the fullest particu- 

 lars to anyone who wants to ^et 

 a solid foundation for his poultry 

 work. Snch foundation of indivi- 

 dual performance and individual 

 pe'digree is essential. 



