10 BULLETIN 561, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
also influenced by the quality of the grains, as the fowls apparently 
liked some lots of feed better than others, although the quality and 
condition of all the grains were good. The average percentages for 
the different pens in both years are fairly uniform, as is shown in 
table 4c. 
The results show that hens will not eat too much beef scrap and 
that they can be allowed to select their own mash feeds. One thing 
emphasized in this work is the large percentage of corn meal, which 
is 2 to 3 times as much as is usually recommended hi a mash. 
The large percentage of corn meal in this mash did not tend to make 
the hens too fat, as shown by the monthly weight records in Table 10. 
The health of the fowls was in no way adversely affected by the large 
percentage of corn meal in the mash. Pen 3 went through its entire 
second year (1913-14) without any sickness or deaths and was the 
only pen in which no mortality occurred during that year. Pen 5, 
which also had a large percentage of corn meal in the mash, went 
through the year 1915, when they were 3-year-old hens, without any 
deaths. 
The mash in Pen 5 was mixed according to the proportions eaten 
by Pen 3, as shown in Table 1. The mash originally contained 10 
per cent bran, 12 per cent middlings, 63 per cent corn meal, and 15 
per cent beef scrap, based on what Pen 3 was eating at that time. 
This was changed after Pen 3 had been in the experiment one year, 
using the average proportions for the year. Pen 5 laid as well as 
Pen 3 the first year, considering the difference in the time that the 
pens were started; and laid 22 more eggs per hen in 1914, producing 
eggs 2.5 cents per dozen cheaper. In 1915, Pen 5 laid 23 more eggs 
per hen than Pen 3 and produced eggs 2.3 cents per dozen cheaper. 
This difference in production during the second and third years is 
partly, if not entirely, due to the difference in time of year when 
these pens matured and started to lay. This is discussed more in 
detail on page 20. Pen 5 also received 12 per cent more beef scrap 
in 1915 than Pen 3, which tends to account for part of the increased 
production in the former pen. Pen 5 contained more broody hens 
in both 1913 and 1914 and the same number in 1915 as Pen 3. 
The mash in Pen 8 was mixed according to the proportions eaten 
by Pen 4. Pen 8 laid 36.7 more eggs per hen than Pen 7 and pro- 
duced eggs 2 cents per dozen cheaper in 1914, while in 1915 Pen 8 
laid 44.8 more eggs per hen and produced eggs 1.9 cents per dozen 
cheaper than Pen 7. Pens 7 and 8 were started at the same time, 
but Pen 7 and Pen 4 were allowed to balance their own rations. 
Pen 7 was confined to a yard while Pens 4 and 8 were on free range. 
The effect of free range on egg production is discussed on page 1G. 
Pen 8 received about 4 per cent more beef scrap than Pen 7 in 1914 
and about 16 per cent more in 1915 and produced the highest 
