Mineral Content of Southern Poultry Feeds 
39 
DISCUSSION 
Many interesting things are brought out by this table. The greatest 
gain in weight in chicks is during the first eight weeks, or first period. 
Following the first period, their increase in weight gradually decreases 
during the balance of the two periods. 
The amount of feed to produce a pound of gain gradually grows 
greater as the bird becomes older. 
In these tests the bird gradually consumes more grain as it grows 
older. Likewise it was found that as a pullet comes into laying, it 
consumes a greater proportion of mash and again slackens in its mash 
consumption as it goes into a non-laying period. 
The consumption of more grain and less mash has a tendency to lessen 
the base balance, or, if acid, has a tendency to increase the acid balance. 
It was noted that the cereals are decided acid while the by-products 
from the legumes are of a base reaction. Those feeds containing by¬ 
products such as soybean meal and peanut meal have a tendency to 
add to the base balance. 
It is noted that those rations containing buttermilk, digester tank¬ 
age, and meat scrap and bone meal, give a base balance in all cases. 
The soda in the blood makes the blood meal base, but not so strongly 
so as digester tankage or meat and bone meal containing much bone. 
Bone is rich in calcium and also contains other bases as sodium. As 
stated before milk functions as base. 
In this work no account has been taken of the amount of calcium 
taken into the crop as grit and oyster shell. This will in all proba¬ 
bility overcome the acid reaction, though without definite data this 
is a mere guess. 
In a large table of studies of rations furnished by the medical staff 
of the U. S. Army the per cent protein calories ran from 10 to 18. In 
this work, estimating the actual intake in each period, the per cent pro¬ 
tein calories ran from 13 to 22. 
There is a possibility, however, that we will need to pay more atten¬ 
tion to the source, or kinds and quantities, of protein calories since we 
have shown in this work that those birds which received animal food, 
and this includes milk, tankage, meat and bone meal, and dried blood 
were prepared by the storing up of the proper potential energy, to put 
these pullets into heavy egg production very young, while those birds 
that did not receive animal food of any kind were not prepared and did 
not go into early heavy egg production. 
