

Report oF First Assistant or Experiment Station. 183 
solely upon some plant foods rich in lime, such as the clovers. 
Crushed oyster shells have been extensively fed and with good results, 
but it has been thought by many that they were of value solely as grit. 
No satisfactory answer seems to have been made to the question 
and in order to obtain some definite information several experiments 
have been made during the past two years at this Station. Partial 
analyses were made of the soluble contents of the crops, gizzards and 
intestines of quite a number of hens, some having been fed oyster 
shells and some not, but only inconclusive results were obtained. 
The fact of considerable free acid always being present, however, 
indicated that the oyster shells might be dissolved. 
Tt has generally been found difficult to keep hens laying for any length 
of time when so closely confined as to preclude the possibility of their 
obtaining food other than that intended for them, and several pro- 
jected feeding trials have not been successful. During the past year, 
however, some feeding experiments have given such conclusive 
results that it is thought well to give the data in full to those 
interested in poultry feeding. - , 
Six one-year-old hens (S. C. B. Leghorns) were used in these 
experiments. It was intended to carry on similar experiments with 
ducks (Pekin), but after being closely penned (not in small pens, 
however) the ducks would not lay well enough, and work with them 
was not completed. 
Three hens were shut in a cleanly swept pen, having a wooden floor 
of matched boards, on March thirtieth, and were fed with wheat, fresh 
cabbage and a mixed grain containing two parts corn meal, two parts 
wheat bran, one part wheat middlings and one part linseed meal (o. p.). 
They were given all the water they would drink and a box of coarsely 
ground oyster shells was kept in the pen. No other grit or food was 
available to them, and no dust baths were used. The neat boxes were 
filled with “excelsior,” none of which the hens ate. The droppings 
were removed several times each day. After ten days’ confinement, as 
the hens continued laying it was assumed that very little, if any, of 
the vegetable food previously consumed could be furnishing material 
for eggs, and during the next ten days the eggs were saved and the 
shells and contents analyzed. 
At the end of this first period of account, boiled eggs were also 
fed, and after feeding them for three days, the hens by that time — 
having been closely confined for twenty-three days, all eggs laid were 
analyzed during a second period of twelve days. 
The per cent of water in each food was determined at frequent 
intervals during the experiment and dried samples were analyzed. 
rail 
