PROFITABLE EGG FARMING. 
nearly every clay, besides storing up fat to 
assist in nourishing her while she is hatching 
her brood. 
To imitate these conditions during the cold, 
dreary winter months, and induce biddy to lay 
the daily egg, keeps the poultryman busy from 
November to March preparing roots and mashe-s. 
The scientist has shown the farmer how to make 
June butter in December. He has told him 
just how much muscle and fat forming food the 
cow wants every day. The pig, the sheep and 
the big steer have each had their needs studied, 
but up to this time very little scientific work 
has been done on the hen. Our hen is not so 
easily studied as the large animals. We con¬ 
fine a pig, a sheep or a steer, feed it certain food, 
and determine by analyzing the solid dung 
(which is undigested food) just what propor¬ 
tion of the constituents in the given food the 
animal has made use of. The hen voids urine 
in solid form mixed with the dung. This has 
proved a stumbling block so high that the 
scientist has not surmounted it and accurately 
determined the digestive powers of fowls. In 
the feeding experiments which have been made 
it has been assumed that fowls use food the 
same as higher animals, but some think that 
fowls use it more economically. 
However, poultrymen have found by many 
different trials rations that produce good results, 
and these are being fed in ignorance of why. 
The hen at liberty eats a great deal of fresh 
grass in its season. This serves a two-fold 
purpose. It not only furnishes food, for tender 
growing grass is very nutritious, but it also 
dilutes other foods, furnishing necessary bulk. 
But when biddy is confined and fed wholly on 
grains, which are concentrated foods, in order to 
extend the crop sufficiently to overcome the 
hungry feeling, she eats more than she requires. 
This forms fat and the active fowl is changed to 
a sluggish hen. When fresh grass and vege¬ 
tables cannot be had, roots furnish a very 
acceptable succulent food. 
The various root crops resemble each other 
in composition. They all contain a very large 
percentage of water. On the average. 
Potatoes contain.75 per cent water. 
Sugar beets contain . .81.5 per cent, water. 
Carrots contain.85.9 per cent, water. 
Rutabagas contain. ..87 per cent, water. 
Mangolds contain. ... 88 per cent, water. 
Parsnips contain.88.3 per cent, water. 
Turnips contain .91.5 per cent, water. 
They all contain very little nitrogenous or 
muscle-making material; they are, however, 
quite rich in carbonaceous or fat forming nutri¬ 
ents. In the potatoes these are chiefly in the 
form of starch, and in the others chiefly in the 
form of sugar and gums. Roots are considered 
to be wholly digestible by the higher animals. 
They do, however, decrease the digestibility of 
other substances fed with them. As stated 
before we do not know much about the hen’s 
digestion. I consider that the chief value of 
roots for hens lies in their succulence, palatabil- 
itv and addition of bulk, rather than in their 
nutriment. A fresh beet or turnip hung in the 
sunshine is much relished by fowls. By boiling 
them to a soft consistency and thickening them' 
with soft grains and adding a little salt, a very 
acceptable mash is made. The cooked vege¬ 
tables give bulk and add to the flavor and 
variety of the mash. For this use I think no 
root superior to the small potato. 
There is no vegetable that will completely fill 
the place of cabbage as a winter food for hens. 
The crisp, tender leaves more closely resemble 
fresh grass both in composition and mechanical 
condition. Fowls seem to relish it and will eat 
a surprising amount if it is kept before them. 
Just now clover rowen cut into short lengths is 
largely used by poultrymen. This is an ex¬ 
cellent food, very nutritious, cheap and easily 
preserved and prepared. Unlike roots, clover 
is rich in muscle forming materials. If steamed 
soft and mixed in the mash in the proportion of 
one part to five or six of the ground grains a 
very gratifying mash is produced. 
To see if clover could be used to replace cab¬ 
bage entirely the Hatch Experiment Station 
conducted the following experiment. Forty 
Plymouth Rock pullets were divided into two 
equal flocks. The divisions were housed and 
fed in every way alike, except that to one a 
cooked mash containing cut clover was given 
daily, while the other received a mash prepared 
of the same grains in the same way without the 
clover. In this house a small cabbage was 
hung once a week. 
The clover in the mash of the first division in¬ 
creased the bulk of the breakfast to such an 
extent that the fowls were satisfied with less 
ground grain than were the others. The actual 
cost of the entire food consumed during the 
experiment by each lot of the fowls varied but 
five cents. At the first of January, the begin¬ 
ning of the test, neither division had laid an egg. 
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