"*//’ '"'JivhSImjB 
photo^nsTco 
NEW YORK, MARCH 26, 1910 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
v:V- A ‘ " ^7 % 
r |||| 
mftk* 
S"CTR B A /V 
HENS THAT FEED THEMSELVES. 
Good Results with Dry-Mash Feeding. 
There is much that is interesting and instructive in 
Mr. Lord’s communication, page 247, “A Successful 
Hen Man Talks,” and it is the more interesting be¬ 
cause Mr. Lord wrote in reply to the communication 
of Mr. Fisher, given on page 1116, in December. 
Unfortunately, neither Mr. Lord nor Mr. Fisher give 
figures to substantiate their claims, which, by the way, 
is a common fault. It is the net results which give 
a basis for determining the profitableness of this or 
that system of feeding; if Mr. Fisher will give us a 
12-months’ egg record of his flocks, and show that his 
method of feeding, with a cooked mash as the founda¬ 
tion, is more profitable than the dry-mash method of 
feeding, he will stand a better chance of winning 
converts. 1 quote a paragraph from Mr. Lord's ar¬ 
ticle, and wish to consid¬ 
er a few points of it: 
‘•It took me almost three 
years to work out the feed¬ 
ing question to my satis¬ 
faction. I fed all ways 
and all grains, and I want 
to say right here most em¬ 
phatically I am a hopper 
feeder of dry mash. Mr. 
Fisher says hopper feeding 
is a lazy man’s method. 
If Mr. Fisher were to fol¬ 
low me for one week he 
would not say that; I 
have been called every¬ 
thing from a lizard up, but 
never lazy. I never heard 
of any sane poultryman 
feeding dry mash alone, 
the only reason for feed¬ 
ing some whole grain be¬ 
ing to promote exercise. In 
addition to the mash in 
hopper, I feed at about 2 
I>. m. (this means Fall and 
Winter months) equal 
parts mixed, cracked corn, 
good red wheat or white, 
and best white oats, fed at 
rate of about one quart to 
each 25 birds. and scat¬ 
tered in very deep dry 
sweet litter. Litter should 
be from eight to 12 inches 
deep. This will keep a 
healthy lot of hens 
scratching and busily 
working until nearly or 
quite roosting time. After 
the birds have gone to 
roost we again scatter in 
litter same kind of grain, 
and about same amount. 
This will start the hens 
at work in the morning. I 
have never seen the hen yet that would eat dry 
if she had any chance to find a stray kernel of 
dry-mash method of feeding I unhesitatingly say that 
feeding a dry mash is far ahead of the old wet-mash 
method; it saves a Jot of back-breaking work, and 
gives better results in healthfulness of flocks and in 
egg yield,—hence in profit. 
In proof of this I give the year’s egg record of a 
flock of 18 White Plymouth Rock pullets, carried 
from October, 1908, to September 30, 1909. There 
were 20 pullets put in the house in September; one 
died of an egg broken inside her just after Christmas, 
we ate one in January, one in March and one in 
April, leaving but 16 birds in the flock after May 1. 
The average number for the whole 12 months was 
a fraction below 18; for convenience we will call it 18. 
Below is the full year’s account in table form, giving 
all receipts and expenses. 
I submit that this gives a good egg-yield, and a 
good showing in profit. Can Mr. Fisher equal it 
\ FLOCK OF PULLETS RAISED ON DRY MASH FEEDING. Fig. 146 . 
masli 
- grain, 
and one will find that hens will woi'k as eagerly for a 
little whole grain where a good dry mash is before 
them as they will if the dry mash were not present.” 
It is amusing that Mr. Fisher should consider that 
hopper feeding is a lazy man’s method. Years ago, 
when I was a boy, there was a saying current in our 
community to the effect that ‘‘lazy men always take 
the most pains,” and it seems to me that saying, applies 
strongly to the feeder of a cooked, or “wet,” mash, 
for he gives (practically) double the labor to the 
care of his fowls, without a particle of increase of 
efficiency. For years and years I fed a cooked mash 
to my flocks, and persistently advocated the feeding 
of a cooked mash in my writings and in talks before 
farmers institutes. It took several visits to such 
dry-mash advocates as Mr. Park and Dr. Nottage, 
and considerable study of their methods and the 
results, to convert me to the feeding of a dry mash 
in hoppers. Now that I have thoroughly tested the 
when feeding a wet mash? Our flock had a hopper 
of dry mash before them all the time, and ate of it as 
Month. 
October, 1008 . 
November . 
December . 
January', 1909 . 
February' . 
March '.. 
April .:. 
May . 
June . 
July . 
August . 
September . 
Total . 
Average number of birds in the flock. 18 
Average number of eggs per bird. . 184% 
Total cost of food consumed. $32.22 
Average cost of food per bird.... 1.79 
Average net profit per bird. 3.49% 
their appetites prompted them; twice a day dry grains 
were scattered in the litter, practically as Mr. Lord 
tells us he fed his, and that was all the food they got. 
No. of 
Price 
Value of 
Eggs. 
per doz. 
Eggs. 
147 
44c. 
$5.39 
282 
52 c. 
12.22 
303 
43 c. 
10.86 
313 
40c. 
10.48 
336 
36c. 
10.08 
384 
25 c. 
8.00 
321 
22c. 
5.88 
257 
24c. 
5.14 
263 
28c. 
6.13 
267 
32c. 
7.12 
249 
33 c. 
7.26 
199 
40c. 
6.63 
3,321 
$95.14 
We should make an exception, however, on account 
of the table waste of a small family; this was mostly 
fruit and vegetable matter, as all scraps of meat were 
carefully excluded. The dry mash carries all the 
animal food the fowls should have, hence everything 
of that kind was thrown out back for the neighbors' 
cats to take care of! 
I feed the grain mixture about 2.30 o’clock in Win¬ 
ter, three o’clock in Spring and late Fall, and about 
four o’clock in Summer; the intention being to give 
the birds sufficient time to scratch out all the kernels 
of grain from the litter,- and then go to the hopper 
for mash, if they crave it, before going on the roost 
for the night. After they had gone to roost I visit 
the poultry house, search the nests for any eggs which 
may have been laid since the regular collection at 
afternoon-feeding time, close the curtains and secure 
them in place, empty the water fountains readv for 
filling in the morning, 
and scatter in the litter a 
scant handful of grain 
for each fowl for the 
breakfast. I don’t like to 
get up early, especially 
in Winter, and it is a 
comfort to know that 
the hens’ breakfast is 
there ready for them 
when they come down 
from the roost in the 
morning; this, I have 
noted, is as soon as they 
can see. 
Mr. Lord states that 
he has never seen a hen 
that would cat dry mash 
if she has a chance to 
find a stray kernel of 
grain. I have. Only yes¬ 
terday afternoon, when 
feeding the scratching 
feed, I noted that some 
of the hoppers of mash 
were rather low, and 
went to work to refill 
them as soon as the eggs 
were gathered up. In two 
of the pens two or three 
hens left the scratching 
as soon as they noted my 
filling the dry-mash hop¬ 
pers, and went to eating 
of the dry mash.. In gen¬ 
eral, however, Mr. Lord 
is right, as the hens 
undoubtedly prefer the 
whole and cracked grains scattered in the litter, 
and will scratch and search about for them so long 
as there is reasonable chance of finding a kernel. 
This was the experience of the late Prof. Gowell, of 
the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, as he 
stated in the station bulletins which give the account 
of the poultry work there. 
It is certain that the dry-mash method of feeding 
fowls cuts out a lot of labor; a man can care for 
(practically) double the number of fowls with the 
same amount of labor by that method, and can, I 
firmly believe, secure better results in both the health 
of the fowls and average egg-yield. The saving of 
labor is most evident in growing the pullets. When 
the chicks are weaned from the brooders I put them 
out in colony coops, set about a hundred feet apart, 
out in rear of my lot. A double hopper is set a little 
in front of each coop, with mixed grains and seeds in 
one side and a drv-mash mixture in the other, and 
those hoppers have to be re-filled but once a week. 
