458 



Animal Food for Poultry. 



[NOV, 



or sour condition is injurious. Different kinds of animal food, 

 moreover, are adapted for different purposes. It w^ould, for in- 

 stance, be useless to feed tallow, greaves, and similar fatty foods 

 to growing chickens or laying hens, because they get enough 

 fat from other sources, but for fattening purposes these foods 

 are very suitable. Apart from fowls which are being actually 

 fattened for killing, it may be taken as a general rule that all 

 other classes, such as growing chickens, laying hens, and hens in 

 moult, require a supply of animal food rich in protein in order 

 to yield the best results. 



Cut Green Bone. — Amongst the products available, the first 

 place ought, perhaps, to be given to green bone. This is .a 

 term borrowed from America, and now applied by poultry- 

 keepers on both sides of the Atlantic to fresh uncooked bones 

 obtained from slaughter houses and butchers' shops. For a 

 considerable number of years green bone has been used as a 

 common article of fowl feeding in America, and there are 

 several firms in that country which manufacture special 

 machines for cutting bones. These must not be confused 

 with bone mills as we know them in the British Islands, for 

 there is a considerable difference between the two machines. 

 A bone cutter is a machine for cutting fresh bones with marrow 

 in them and with pieces of adhering meat, and it will also cut 

 vegetables, scraps from the table, &c., but it will not cut or 

 grind dried bones. On the other hand, a bone mill grinds dried 

 bones into meal, but will not grind or cut fresh bones and similar 

 soft substances. 



The cost of a bone cutter may vary from £\ to ;^5. The 

 smaller sizes are ■ worked by hand power and are suitable for 

 the owners of small flocks, but when several hundred fowls are 

 kept it is necessary to have a machine which is worked by 

 horse or steam or similar power. 



As to the value of cut bone for poultry feeding, the United 

 States Department of Agriculture observes that " where fowls 

 are kept in confinement it is necessary to supply some meat 

 food. Finely cut fresh bone from the meat markets is one of the 

 best if not the best kind of meat food for laying hens and young 

 chickens. Tainted bones should be rejected as unfit for food, 

 and the bones should be both fresh and freshly cut before use." 



