26 
The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
by the value in different ingredients of the various foods, for which purpose we reproduce 
the following table, which since its publication in the “ Poultry Diary ” has been frequently copied, 
but adding hempseed, buckwheat, and potatoes to the list, and re-arranging the various foods 
in the order of their richness in the nitrogenous or flesh-forming substances. * 
There is in every 100 parts 
by weight of 
Flesh-forming 
Material, viz., 
Gluten, &c. 
Warmth-giving and Fattening 
Material, viz. 
Bone-making 
Materials, or 
Mineral 
Substances. 
Husk 
or 
Fibre. 
Water. 
Fat or Oil. 
Starch. 
• 
Beans and Peas . 
25 
2 
4S 
2 
8 
*5 
Oatmeal 
18 
6 
63 
2 
2 
9 
Middlings, Thirds, 
or 
Fine Sharps . 
18 
6 
53 
5 
4 
14 
Oats 
15 
6 
47 
2 
20 
10 
Wheat .... 
12 
3 
7 ° 
2 
1 
12 
Buckwheat . 
12 
6 
58 
G 
1 1 
ui 
Barley . . . . 
I 1 
2 
60 
2 
«4 
11 
Indian Corn . . 
1 I 
8 
65 
1 
5 
10 
Hempseed . . . 
IO 
21 
45 
2 
14 
8 
Rice 
7 
A trace. 
80 
A trace. 
... 
13 
Potatoes ... 
6 i 
... 
4i 
2 
... 
5°4 
Milk 
4i 
3 
5 
5 
••• 
862 
It will be seen that there are several substances often used as food for poultry which by this 
table are shown to be comparatively worthless. Rice, for instance, contains less than half the 
flesh or egg-forming material of several other grains, and is useless, except when mixed with milk 
for the purpose of fattening fowls. Cheap as it is, we would warn every one that it never pays 
to use rice as the food of laying birds. It will also be seen that potatoes form very poor 
nourishment, and should never be given except combined with other food rich in flesh-formers. 
What, then, should be the staple ? First of all we would place ground oats ; not thin, husky 
horse-meat bruised, but good heavy white oats, such as weigh thirty-six to forty pounds per bushel, 
and ground up whole, husk and all, as they are ground in Sussex, so as to look almost like flour. 
The Sussex fowls are the finest, as a whole, in the world ; and this is what they are chiefly fed 
upon. The husk is not taken out at all, but is ground up so fine as scarcely to appear ; and fowls 
prefer this food to almost any other. There is often great difficulty in getting oats thus ground 
in any other locality, as the millstones require to be specially dressed for producing it ; but on 
several occasions we have been able to get our own grain ground up whole sufficiently fine to be 
liked, though not quite equal to the Sussex samples. Oatmeal, which is the same grain ground 
after the outer shell or husk has been taken out, is also a most valuable food, but is usually too 
dear for feeding mere stock poultry. If bought in quantities of five hundredweight at a time, 
however, it can often be procured from the Glasgow dealers, of very fair quality, so as not to cost 
above 14s. to 16s. per hundredweight, and is then a remunerative food. Fine sharps, middlings, 
or “thirds” (it bears all these names, and in Ireland is called “pollard”), which consists of the 
finer or inside bran of wheat, contains the same amount of gluten, when good, as oatmeal, and 
is much cheaper, but is by itself too dry and “ branny” to be relished by the birds. But mixed 
in equal quantities with barley-meal, it forms a cheap and most excellent food, and is also suitable 
for mixing with potatoes or boiled turnips when these are given. Indian meal is too fattening to 
* In the revised edition of his “Poultry Book,” published 1874, Mr. Tegetmeier states that the table in its original form 
was copied by the “Poultry Diary” from a paper prepared by him for a County Agricultural Society, 
