PRACTICAL PAPERS—POULTRY RAISING. 
289 
of this nature, as upon it they must depend exclusively for 
the proper grinding of their food. 
A supply of dried grass, or rowen, should be provided in 
the fall for fowls to pick at during the winter. They like it 
exceedingly, and will eat a good deal of it. This is a cheap 
method of supplying them with green food during a season of 
comparative scarcity. It may be fed from a rack made for the 
purpose, or tied into a snug bundle and hung within their 
reach. 
Whatever the feed of fowls may consist of, let it always be 
sound in quality, if you would keep them in good health, and 
have good flavored eggs. Better bury your musty or spoiled 
grain, than force fowls to eat such trash ; remember, that 
when you are cheating or neglecting your fowls, the loss is 
yours. It is equally necessary that they should have pure 
water to drink within their reach at all times. 
How can my present stock of common fowls be improved ? 
This is an important question. The answer is, by always sav¬ 
ing those for breeders that combine the desired characteristics 
in the greatest degree, and keep up this selection from year to 
year, rearing chickens from the best only. To hasten the im¬ 
provement, procure a cock from some strain of pure bred 
fowls, that posssss in the greatest degree the qualifications you 
* / # 
aim to secure. It is always desirable to use only pure bred 
cocks, if improvement is to be attained speedily. A cross of 
the large breeds upon common stock will produce chickens at 
the first cross, attaining nearly the size of the pure breed; also 
in the increase of the production of eggs, by crossing with a 
breed of good layers, the improvement is visible in a marked 
degree at the first cross. Right at this point is where many 
meet with failure in not continuing to breed to pure bred 
males, thinking that a fine looking half blood, possessing all 
the outward indications of a pure-bred, will answer every pur¬ 
pose ; whereas the half blood pullets should be mated to a 
pure bred o°ok of a different strain from the first one, or the 
improvement will soon be lost. 
10—Ag. Tr. 
