Chapter VI. 
FOODS AND FEEDING. BEST RATION FOR EGG PRODUCTION. SOME 
TESTED EGG RATIONS. 
r OOD is required to repair bodily waste 
and maintain the bodily strength. 
The materials of which the body 
consists are continually breaking 
down, being consumed and passed 
off as waste, and are being replaced by new 
materials supplied through the blood from the 
food eaten; to keep the body in a healthy and 
vigorous condition there must be a constant 
supply of new material to take the place of the 
old. If this supply of new material is insuffi¬ 
cient hunger manifests itself, and if the supply 
is cut off for a considerable time death may 
result. To keep up this supply of new material 
is the chief function of food, but in addition the 
food maintains the heat of the body, furnishes 
the force or energy which enables muscular 
movement, and also enables the performing of 
the necessary functions of the body. In young 
animals growth has to be made, and while that 
growth is made by supplying new material to 
take the place of the old, there is also an excess 
of new material necessary to make the growth, 
or development. In many matured animals 
milk or eggs are secreted, and for this purpose 
a supply of food is required in excess of the 
normal bodily wants, and to supply food of the 
right proportion to meet the bodily require¬ 
ments of the animal without a w'aste of the food 
material, constitutes the science of feeding. 
There are many different methods of feeding 
fowls, and not a few habits of feeding which 
can be characterized as wholly lacking in 
method; this is unfortunate because method and 
regularity in feeding are most important for 
best results. It is hardly the province of this 
book to enter into the question of the chemical 
constituents of foods; we shall better serve the 
interests of our readers by describing several 
methods of feeding which have been successful 
in many hands, and the rations here given are 
those of successful poultrymen. 
In the articles selected for this chapter the 
feeding of a “ mash ” for breakfast is very 
generally recommended, hence we desire to call 
especial attention to the dry-feeding method 
described by Mr. Park. It is perhaps too early 
yet to decide that all-dry-food will give as good 
(or substantially as good) results as the mash- 
for-breakfast method of feeding; if it should be 
demonstrated that it induces (substantially) as 
good an egg yield with the acknowledged better 
average health of the flocks, then the dry-feed¬ 
ing method is the better. It certainly effects 
a considerable saving in labor and as there has 
been, on the part of not a few poultry keepers, 
an abuse of mash-feeding which has induced 
liver-disease and other disasters, the dry-feed¬ 
ing method deserves careful study. 
The right feeding of fowls is not at all a diffi¬ 
cult matter; the prime essentials are a proper 
proportion and a sufficient quantity; with a 
variety of food elements provided in sufficient 
quantity, the fowls will properly “balance” 
the ration. Feed a variety; feed in sufficient 
quantity, but don’t overfeed; feed systemati¬ 
cally and regularly—these are the rules for 
successful poultry feeding. 
FEEDING FOWLS FOR EGGS. 
Feed a Variety; Do Not Overfeed. An Excel¬ 
lent Food Ration and Feeding Method. 
Constant discussion of the question of “ feed¬ 
ing fowls for eggs ” has caused many to think it 
a very difficult matter, which it is not, if one 
uses plain, common sense, and feeds only what 
the fowls will clean up quickly. The two great¬ 
est stumbling blocks for the beginner are a lack 
of a variety of food-elements, and overfeeding. 
A small flock of fowls, ranging at will through 
and around the farm buildings, will pick up half 
their living, and greatly vary the food-elements 
consumed by eating quantities of insects and 
worms, grass seeds from the hay mow, etc., and 
in winter will eat the leaves, etc., off the hay 
(especially clover); and by these pickings they 
