1474 
7h* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 29, 1924 
Green Feed Menus of Jersey Poultry Farms 
HE GARDEN STATE.—New Jersey is 
known as the “Garden State” of the Union 
because of the large variety of vegetables 
and fruit grown within its borders. Is it 
any wonder then that over 57 varieties of 
these vegetables are used by the poultry- 
men of the State in supplying their chickens with 
the necessary food for good health and production? 
Probably nowhere else in this country are green feed 
and milk products so richly supplied in different 
forms to poultry as are given to the laying, growing 
and breeding flocks of New Jersey commercial poul¬ 
try farms. The flocks of this State are usually kept 
in units of 100 birds. Records show that each year 
the average poultryman feeds 700 lbs. of miscellane¬ 
ous feeds, such as milk and green feeds, to each unit. 
This additional feed costs the poultryman, in round 
numbers, about $30 per year. The table 
at right shows the pullet production, 
monthly feed consumption and con¬ 
sumption of miscellaneous feed per 
bird on 200 poultry farms in New Jer¬ 
sey for the year 1923-1924. 
VALUE OF GREEN FEEDS. — 
Scientists tell us' we should feed these 
feeds to take care of the vitamin and 
mineral metabolism necessary for good 
egg production and healthy stock. The 
Jersey poultry men say they feed these 
feeds for any number of reasons; vo 
keep the birds happy, encourage great¬ 
er feed consumption, to avoid constipa¬ 
tion and to correct any vitamin or 
mineral deficiency. Most of the poul- 
trymen make it a habit of feeding this 
extra feed some time in the morning, 
usually before 10 o’eioek. As a result 
all the flock gets its share before going 
to laying. Many of them feed it the 
first thing in the morning, closely fol¬ 
lowing the natural habit of the flock in 
eating green stuff before touching the 
regular scratch grain or mash ra¬ 
tions. 
SOME STANDARD RATIONS—The 
amount fed depends largely upon the 
type of feed to-be fed, method of feeding 
and the amount of he product avail¬ 
able for the Winter months. If sprouted 
oats are used, 3 or 4 lbs' of the dry oats 
are sprouted daily for 100 birds. This 
lyakes from 7 to 8 lbs. of succulent 
feed. Cabbage, kale or rape are fed at 
tlie rate of 5 to S lbs. daily to 100 bii*ds. 
Some poultrymen follow the practice 
of feeding this supplementary feed in 
conjunction with a wet mash. In this 
case smaller amounts are used. If the 
success of growing the crop or the 
source of feed is not as large as it 
might be, the usual practice of small 
quantities of daily feeding is followed. 
HEAVY WINTER EGG YIELD. ~ 
There is no doubt of the value to poul¬ 
try-keeping in New Jersey of feeding 
these green feeds and milk products. 
Without them it would be practically 
impossible to keep the flocks in the 
health in which they are maintained 
kale, rape, spinach, Swiss chard, cabbage, Alfalfa, 
clover, and yeast. 1 also saw skim-milk, semi-solid 
buttermilk, powdered milk and cheese being fed. 
Eggs 
Total feed 
Mi sc. feed 
Month. 
per bird. 
consumed. 
consumed. 
November. . 
. 7.0 
6.2 lbs. 
.8 lbs. 
December. . 
. 10.4 
6.8 lbs. 
.6 lbs. 
January. . . 
. 12.4 
7.3 lbs. 
.6 lbs. 
February. . . 
. 12.8 
6.7 lbs. 
.4 lbs. 
March. 
. 16.4 
7.5 lbs. 
.6 lbs. 
April. 
. 16.4 
7.3 lbs. 
.4 lbs. 
May. 
. 17.7 
7.2 lbs. 
.6 lbs. 
June. 
. 15.0 
6.8 lbs. 
Ji lbs. 
July. 
. 15.4 
6.8 lbs. 
.6 lbs. 
August. . . . 
. 14.3 
7.0 lbs. 
.6 lbs. 
September. . 
. 10.8 
6.6 lbs. 
.6 lbs. 
October. . . . 
6.3 lbs. 
.6 lbs. 
Total. . 
. 154.1 
82.5 lbs. 
7.0 lbs. 
The most unusual results were being obtained from 
sprouted oats by Wm. Johnstone and the Marquis 
Poultry Farms of Ocean County. Roth men have 
Waiting for Their Morning's Green Feed. Fig. 606. 
An Acre of Mangels Such as These Insure Good Production and Health During 
the Wittier Months. Fig. 607. 
and still get the high production through the Win¬ 
ter. As many poultrymen will tell you, by the xise 
of lights and early hatching, their heaviest produc¬ 
tion is in the late Fall and early Winter months, and 
not during the Spring, as it used to be. If it were 
not for the use of these supplemental feeds this con¬ 
dition could not be. Regardless of lights and early 
hatching, cold, roup, thin condition and molting 
would be the results. The biggest job that these 
feeds do during the Winter time, in my estimation, 
is to stimulate consumption of feed. With their use 
it is not uncommon for poultrymen to get as high as 
30 lbs. of feed daily into 100 birds. When this is 
true one need not worry about the egg production 
going too high. These feeds are just as essential 
during the Summer time as during the Winter. 
With their use it will be found that the molt will be 
retarded and that the dropping of egg production 
will be much slower. 
DIFFERENT CROPS USED.—In traveling over 
the State during the past six weeks I remember see¬ 
ing the following fed to poultry for green feed, along 
with their daily ration of scratch feed and mash: 
Watercress, apples, mangels, sprouted oats, celery, 
laying flocks of over 2,000 White Leghorns, and have 
made an average of 200 eggs per bii*d fi*om them. 
Their method of feeding is to sprout 3 lbs. of dry 
heavy oats per 100 birds daily, and mix it in a wet 
mash with semi-solid buttermilk. This is fed in the 
morning, and the birds are allowed all that they will 
eat during the day. No dry mash is fed. Consump¬ 
tion of mash runs from 10 to 15 lbs. a day to 100 
birds by this method. William Longstreet is the best 
booster of mangels. lie keeps 5,000 layers, and does 
most of his work himself. Mr. Longstreet claims he 
can take care of 5,000 layers, trap-nest 800 of them, 
clean, grade and pack the eggs by his system of man¬ 
agement, and still have time to raise green feeds 
without any help. In August, when I was at his 
plant, he was still feeding last year’s mangels. They 
were laige, solid, and just as good as when he put 
them away last Fall. Fifty tons would be a low 
estimate of the number of mangels that are fed on 
this plant each year. With the mangels are also fed 
sprouted oats and semi-solid buttermilk. Mi’. Long- 
street’s plant is one of the most successful in the 
State. 
APPLES AND EGGS.—The Just-So Farms, owned 
and managed by Irving Wayne Clark of Burlington 
County, are noted for their high quality apples and 
eggs. The manager of the farms averaged a produc¬ 
tion of 93 eggs per bird from 1,000 layers from No¬ 
vember 1, 1923, to May 1, 1924, and made a return 
above feed cost of $1.14 per head. Apples that are 
not quite good enough to market is his way of feed¬ 
ing succulent feed and promoting exei-cise in his 
flock. Mi-. Clark chops up a 10-quart pail of apples 
daily for 300 bii‘ds. 
HEN SALADS.—Celery as a green feed may seem 
new to some of us, but the Richie Poultry Fai-nx of 
Little Falls, N. J., has been feeding it at the rate oi 
7 lbs. to 100 bii-ds daily for over two years with ‘ex¬ 
cellent results. His avei-age last year was 188 eggs 
per bird. Mi*. Richie’s neighbors grow celery for the 
New York mai’ket, and their market only wants the 
hearts of the celery, therefore the 
other leaves are disposed of by the 
chickens. Watercress, where a good 
supply can be secured throughout 
the year, means better health, moi*e 
eggs and good hatches. Irving Drew 
of Sussex County proved this last 
year with his Black Leghorns. Back 
in one of the pastures on this farm 
lis a slow bi-ook full of watei-cress 
that keeps green all Winter. All 
Mr. Drew has to do is to take a bushel 
basket and fill it up each morning, and 
his worries are over. Ilis production 
through the Winter months was 90 
eggs per bird without lights. 
CABBAGE, MILK AND YEAST.-- 
William Cocking of Cumberland Coun¬ 
ty is one of the most successful of the 
poultrymen in that district, and is.one 
of those who have been in the business 
longest. He has seldom even had any 
sickness among his birds, and each 
year his production is very high. This 
success Mr. Cocking attributes to the 
feeding of cabbages. All that they will 
clean up in an hour is his simple meth¬ 
od of feeding. C. T. Darby of Somer¬ 
set County, the breeder of contest win¬ 
ners, as he is known in New Jersey, 
believes in less meat scrap and more 
milk to his stock. Ills growing stock 
gets skim-milk to drink and powdered 
milk in their mash. The bi-eeders get 
the same, and his layei-s semi-solid 
buttermilk. Mr. Dai-by averaged 178 
eggs per bird on his home plant, and 
had the winning pen in the Vineland 
egg laying contest in 1922, and third 
best pen at Vineland in 1922 and 1923, 
and has just won the Stoi-rs egg laying 
contest with a flock of 10 birds that av¬ 
eraged better than 250 eggs per bird. 
Yeast, which we are healing a great 
deal about at the present time, has a 
sti’on'g booster in E. .T. Rubi-iglit of 
Cape May County. He has made ex¬ 
cellent growing and production records. 
His 2,000 White Leghorns laid an aver¬ 
age of 130.6 eggs per bird during the 
first 10 months of this year. Mr. Ru- 
bright feeds the yeast in a wet mash 
each morning und the results seem justified. I could 
go on and tell of many other successful poultrymen 
feeding other kinds of gi-een feeds and milk pro¬ 
ducts with equally good success. I can recall no 
successful poultryman in my travels who doesn’t ap¬ 
preciate these feeds. w. h. allex. 
Changes in Farm Practice in a Lifetime 
P ERMANENT PASTURES.—-The basis of profit¬ 
able agriculture is a fertile soil in which fertil¬ 
ity is maintained and increased. A sod of some kind 
is necessary to produce this condition. The result¬ 
ing soil will be adapted to certain crops, according 
to the character of the available plan food accruing 
as the result of gi-owtli and decay of sods formed 
by plants of different habits of growth. We know 
that all soil is the result of decayed vegetable mat¬ 
ter, reinforced by mineral elements in the earth that 
are rendei-ed available by chemical action in the 
great and mystei-ious laboratory of nature. If we 
abandon a field, leaving it bai-e of vegetation, in a 
few years it will be covered with a gx-ass sod, but 
weeds will first possess the soil which, when de- 
