THE POULTRY BOOK. 
13 
bringing bis grain to market is richer in gluten (flesh-forming food) than the plump 
full-grown grain, and is therefore more nutritious.” 
Oats are not so frequently used as barley, which they exceed in cost by weight. 
In purchasing oats it is exceedingly desirable to procure the heaviest samples, as 
they contain very little more husk than the lightest, and are consequently much 
cheaper, if the proportion of meal is taken into consideration ; for example, a 
bushel of oats weighing thirty pounds consists of sixteen pounds of meal and 
fourteen of husk, whereas one of thirty- six pounds contains upwards of twenty 
pounds of meal and less than sixteen of husk. The lighter oats are frequently 
refused by fowls, and hence the low estimation in which the grain is sometimes 
held ; but if soaked in water over night, so as to swell the kernel, none are refused. 
The amount of flesh-forming food is greater in oats and oatmeal than in any 
other grain, being about fifteen to eighteen per cent., and the amount of fatty 
substances is double that contained in wheat. 
Indian corn is chiefly remarkable for the quantity of oil it contains, whereas rice 
consists almost entirely of starch, the amount of flesh- forming food being only 
seven per cent. As rice swells enormously when boiled, it is often erroneously 
imagined to be a cheap food. Granting that one pound of rice will, in boiling, 
absorb five pounds of water, it does not follow that there are six pounds of food ; 
there is really but one pound, and that of inferior value, especially for growing 
chickens, as containing but little flesh-forming material. 
Buck-wheat, which is very largely employed on the Continent as poultry food, 
is about equal to barley in the amount of gluten it contains. 
All the varieties of pulse, as peas, beans, and tares, are remarkable for the 
extraordinary quantity of flesh-forming food and the small per centage of fat they 
contain. They may be regarded as too stimulating for general use. If fowls were 
required to undergo a great amount of bodily exertion, it would be desirable to treat 
them as the mining proprietors of South America treat their labourers, and make 
them, even if against their inclination, devour a feed of beans daily ; but the result 
would be a hardening of the muscular fibres, and a firmness of flesh incompatible 
with a good table fowl. 
Wheat meal and barley meal scarcely differ from the grain from which they are 
prepared ; but between oats and oatmeal there is a wide distinction. The rejection of 
so large a portion of the husk, and the expulsion of moisture by kiln-drying, 
increases greatly the price of oatmeal, and, extremely advantageous as its employ- 
ment undoubtedly is, it can only be used economically for fattening fowls and for 
the nourishment of the youngest chickens, for which it is the best possible food. 
Fine middlings, which are also known as thirds, or in London as coarse country 
flour, are very similar in their composition to oatmeal, and, employed with boiled 
or steamed roots, they are most advantageously and economically used. For this 
purpose small potatoes boiled or steamed may be used. We have found great 
advantage in employing mangold-wurtzel, boiled with a very small quantity of 
water until perfectly soft, and then thickened with middlings or meal. 
