282 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
'April 18 
FEEDING A HEN. 
Part XIV. 
The first thing we have to consider 
this week, is the following note from 
Mr. J. H. Seely, the poultryman at Gov. 
Morton’s great farm. Mr. Seely made 
up various rations for White Plymouth 
Rock laying hens, and finally settled 
upon the following : 
Bran, 200 pounds; gluten feed, 200; corn meal, 
100; oat meal or ground oats, 200; cotton-seed 
meal, 25; linseed meal, 25; middlings, 50; Pres¬ 
ton’s animal meal, 100, making 900 pounds. This 
is for a morning mash mixed with milk cr hot 
water. The rest of the day, we feed wheat. The 
whole ration has a ratio of about one to five. In 
trying experiments with oil meal, we found that 
the yolk of the egg became separated, about two- 
thirds clear oil, the rest hardened line a stone, 
and soon decomposed, killing quite a number. 
Cotton-seed meal seemed to affect the heart; they 
would drop over, and I could find nothing wrong 
with them inside. The hens fed on the narrow 
ration, are much more lively, not so fat and lazy, 
heads look bright, are not so much affected by 
diseased liver, and, in fact, appear stronger in 
every respect. 
Mr. Seely says that he is much pleased 
with the experiment thus far. His 
former ration was much wider. You 
will notice that he feeds but little corn 
meal, and no whole corn at all. The 
mash contains eight different ingred¬ 
ients. This is in line with what Mr. 
Cottrell told us on page 228, about feed¬ 
ing the Guernsey cows. Animals like a 
variety of food, and it is a good plan, if 
you are going into “mush making” at 
all, to give them what they like. 
Another important point in Mr. Seely’s 
note is the result of feeding the oil meal 
in large quantities. When he started in 
to “balance” the ration by increasing 
the proportion of muscle-makers, he first 
tried to use the oil meal almost entirely. 
As you know, both oil meal and cotton¬ 
seed meal contain large amounts of 
muscle-makers, and could be used with 
dry stalks or ensilage to balance a ration 
for. cattle. The oil meal, being laxative, 
would answer with the stalks, and as the 
cotton-seed meal is constipating, it is 
best used with the ensilage. With poul¬ 
try, however, these rules will not ex¬ 
actly follow. As we have seen, the 
digestive organs of the hen differ con¬ 
siderably from those of the cow, and as 
the egg is made up with its fat yolk 
inside its muscle-maker “ white”—the 
whole thing being put together with 
marvelous rapidity—we cannot safely 
feed such a large proportion of pure fat 
as we would to a cow or hog. 
The result of feeding so much oil meal 
in order to obtain muscle-makers, was 
that an excess of oil or fat was given, 
and this affected the yolk of the egg as 
described by Mr. Seely. The hen kept 
on laying, you see, because the ration 
was balanced, and she was not likely to 
become fat and quit laying as she 
would have done if the ration had been 
wider. This is an interesting and useful 
fact, and well illustrates one great dif¬ 
ference between the science of feeding 
for eggs or for milk. Do not make up a 
poultry ration that contains an excess of 
oil or pure fat. The trouble with cut 
bone and most of the meat meals, is that 
they contain too much pure fat or grease. 
Somewhat in this line, is the follow¬ 
ing valuable letter from one of the 
largest duck raisers in America, which 
will give us all something to think about: 
“My Hen is a Duck.” 
“ I have been very much interested in 
the articles on feeding a hen, but they 
do not altogether apply to me, as my 
hen is a duck. I am now feeding a 
ration to the breeders in which the 
nutritive ratio is 1 to 3.56, and to the 
ducklings in which the nutritive ratio 
is 1 to 3.24. What do you think of it? 
The natural feed of the duck is largely 
fish ; and the Long Island breeders feed 
a good deal of this and get a larger duck, 
and earlier eggs than we can here in¬ 
land. I imagine that they feed a very 
much narrower ration. I am sure that 
they get the results, but I do not like 
the effect on the bowels, and it is very 
loosening. When I go around my yards 
and see the droppings standing in little 
piles, with a white nightcap on each, I 
think that the bowels are then in an 
ideal condition. Please take up this 
question of droppings, and throw some 
light on it; I know how important it is 
in feeding cattle, and why not in poultry? 
I am now feeding cotton-seed meal in 
small quantities instead of linseed, as I 
find it not so loosening, and I also feed 
a little charcoal which, I think, has a 
good effect on the droppings. Can you 
give us a list of feeds that are divided 
into the constipating and loosening ? 
“ 1 was very much surprised on getting 
the analysis of green bone, to find how 
much fat it contained, and on figuring 
it out, to see that I had been feeding it 
at a loss for so many years. At the price 
at which I can buy scrap and dry blood, 
they are much the cheaper. The Ger¬ 
man standard ratio for fattening cattle 
is 2.50 muscle-makers, 15.0 fat-formers, 
.50 pure fat per 1,000 pounds. Can’t you 
give us some similar standard for poul¬ 
try, per 1,000 pounds? Is not a nutri¬ 
tive ratio a little misleading ? Can’t we 
make a ration that contains too large an 
amount of fat, even though the ratio is 
all right ? Is there any known rule as 
to how the fats should compare with 
the fat-formers, or are they mostly con¬ 
vertible, as 2% is to 1 ?” 
WM. H. TBUSLOW. 
There are too many good questions in 
this letter to be answered in one article, 
and we shall try to take them up as we 
go along. This “ Feeding a Hen” has 
proved so interesting and popular, that 
we have decided to keep at it for awhile 
longer. 
Our opinion is that, generally speak¬ 
ing, ducks require a narrower ration than 
hens, and we think that Mr. Truslow is 
on the right track in feeding the grow¬ 
ing ducklings a larger proportion of 
muscle-makers than he does to the lay¬ 
ers. We are not able to suggest any ex¬ 
act ratio to be used. Our belief is that 
when hens are well housed and cared 
for, a proportion of one part muscle- 
makers to four parts fat-formers, is 
about right, and from that point of view, 
Mr. Truslow’s feeding is correct, so far 
as proportions go. Of course, the true 
test of feeding is the result. 
It is reasonable to suppose that the 
Long Island duck breeders, who feed 
large quantities of fish, do give a nar¬ 
rower ration. In most fish, as fed on 
the Island, the proportion of muscle- 
makers exceeds that of the pure fat, and 
the grain fed with it would, apparently, 
not bring the ratio above 1 to 3. The 
theory, therefore, would favor a nar¬ 
rower ration even than Mr. Truslow’s 
for large and quickly maturing ducks. 
We hope to obtain more light on this 
interesting problem, as well as on other 
points raised in this letter. 
And now let us throw in a few grains 
of fat-formers in the shape of a short 
note about our old friend, J. A. W. : 
I am very much pleased at the way J. A. W. 
comes back at liis critics. Pleased, not because 
I agree with him, but because I like to see a man 
defend his opinions with vigor, which he cer¬ 
tainly does. While the mush-makers are taking 
lessons, it might be well for J. A. W. to read the 
Business Hen, and learn how one of them cleared 
over $1,000 a year from 600 hens, after paying 
liberally for the labor of making mush, etc. ($30 
per month). When the smoke has cleared away, 
some one may have life enough remaining to 
figure out how much it would cost to house 200 
hens, if a new building had to be provided 27x45 
feet with a barn cellar or scratching shed 30 x 100 
feet, in connection with a fence inclosing a five- 
acre field. It might be well, also, to figure out 
how much is saved by feeding wheat at 80 cents 
per bushel, simply because it is ready mixed; 
when middlings can be bought at 85 cents per 100 
pounds. 
J. A. W. must have missed page 41 of Thk R. 
N.-Y. It would make him sick to read how many 
eggs Mr. Brewster’s hens (mush-maker) lay in 
cold weather, and then look in his own egg bas¬ 
ket. The class of people who are willing to pay 
big prices for eggs, expect a supply the year 
’round, and J. A. W. will be surprised to see how 
quickly they will discard him as soon as they 
find a man like Mr. Brewster. They will not stop 
to inquire how much trouble it is to mix mush. 
o. w. MAPES. 
lUtecdtattroujs.' 
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