76 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY REPORT. 
than other grains, and used in any quantity would produce excessive 
fat, while a narrower ration would make lean meat. 
In an experiment of feeding pens of hens and of young cockerels 
largely or altogether on corn and corn meal the vice of feather eat- 
ing, and in one instance cannibalism, soon developed, while similar 
pens under more varied rations remained in good condition. In 
two instances the vice disappeared with change of food. 
AN EXPERIMENT IN FEEDING FAT. 
In connection with the unfavorable opinion concerning the use 
of corn it was held that corn contained too much fat, and that any 
ration containing much fat was injurious and inferior to any similar 
ration with less fat. 
To observe what ill effects might follow the use of a ration carry- 
ing an unusual amount of fat a feeding trial® with sixteen hens 
was made. Two rations were fed, the one including all the tallow 
that was readily eaten with ordinary food, and the other a similar 
one except that linseed meal was substituted for the tallow. The 
proportion of fat to total dry matter was that of 1:8.1 in one ration 
and 1:29.5 in the other. The nutritive ratio of the ration with tal- 
low was about 1:6.8 and of the more nitrogenous ration about 1:4.8. 
For most of the time and on the average, egg production was 
slightly in- favor of the more nitrogenous ration both in number and 
size of eggs. But for about six weeks of the hottest weather (July 
and August) more eggs were obtained from the tallow-fed hens. 
For about four and one-half months covering the better part of 
the laying season the amount of dry matter in the food for every 
pound of eggs produced was 4.3 pounds for the fat ration and 3.4 
pounds for the more nitrogenous ration. 
There was but little difference as to fluctuations in live weight, 
though the hens having the fat ration held to somewhat heavier 
average weight during all except the earliest periods. 
INFLUENCE OF FOOD ON THE MOLT. 
Except in the matter of plumage® the tallow-fed hens seemed 
throughout in better general condition than the others. The chief 
difference noted was that the hens having the more nitrogenous 
linseed meal ration molted earlier in the season, more rapidly and 
* Bul.39; also in Rpt, 10:164—100ut 1801 ). 
* Rpt. r0:195 (1891). 
