88 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY REPORT. 
nary whole and ground grains. In these feeding trials it was chiefly 
sought to compare rations of foods ordinarily available and com- 
monly used, contrasting the whole and ground grain foods. While 
there were minor differences in chemical composition the rations 
were made to correspond as closely as possible without feeding 
unusual products and not omitting the grains and by-products in 
general use. The differences were much less than would exist be- 
tween the two types of rations commonly fed. There were fed 
wheat, cracked corn, barley, oats, granulated oatmeal, fresh bone, 
skim milk, dried blood, wheat bran, wheat middlings, ground oats 
and corn meal. 
Two lots of chicks (of several Asiatic breeds) were fed from 
hatching to the age of three months, and afterward four lots of 
capons for about six months. The grain food of one ration con- 
sisted entirely of whole or cracked grain and of the contrasted 
ration entirely of ground grain. Skim milk was fed freely to both 
lots, some fresh bone and part of the time blood meal, and also 
for the chicks some green forage. 
Considerably more food was eaten by the chicks under the ground 
grain ration and the growth was faster. Although more food was 
taken for the same increase in weight under the ground grain 
ration the cost of growth was less owing to the lower prices for 
the ordinary ground grain products than for whole grains. 
The chicks fed ground grain from the start averaged one pound 
in weight at six weeks of age, and those having whole grain aver- 
aged one pound at seven weeks of age. At ten weeks old the lot 
fed ground grain averaged two pounds in weight, and the lot having 
whole grain 1.8 pounds. When the lot having whole grain aver- 
aged three pounds in weight at thirteen weeks of age the lot having 
the ground grain averaged 3.3 pounds. The chicks of both lots, 
and later the capons from these same lots, remained in equally good 
health throughout the trials. | 
The cockerels were caponized and continued under the con- 
trasted rations for several months longer. For a little more than 
two months after caponizing the lot having the ground grain con- 
tinued to make somewhat the faster growth; after that the other 
lot increased in weight faster and attained at maturity practically 
the same average. The greater consumption of food found with 
the chicks under the ground grain ration continued with the capons 
and more food was taken for the same rate of gain, so the cost 
of added weight was somewhat greater under the ground grain 
ration. 
