St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1867-12-13
CALIFORNIAN.
farm, Garden aud Aitfheu.
Hoe Fouls and Birds GRIND their
Food.

Fowls have no teeth to grind or mas
t;cate their food with, and the best they
are able to do with it at first, is to pick
it to pieces and swallow it whole. Her
ncls of grain are swallowed whole by
them, and as they are surrounded with
a tough pellicle or skin, which the juices
OF the stomachs of animals will not readl-
ly dissolve OR digest, they could obtain
no nourishment at all from grain, II this
tough pellicle were not broken
Let horses, cattle or people swallow
kernels of grain, or ripe seeds Of fruit,
whole, and they will pass off in the or
durc unbroken, and most of them will
not lose their vitality, in consequence OF
such process, and such grain would af-
ford no more nourishment than so many
smooth gravel stones. Now if we dissect
the gizzard Of fowl of any kind, we
find q lot Of small gravel stones, winch
are usually the hardest kind of flint, gran
lite or sand stone Surely here is poe
ket edition of Farm Grist Mills. The
mystery is, where do fowls find such lit
tic fint-like stones, when their abode is
on farms, the soil Of which is a complete
mold or muck, destitute of gravel, or
when they are confined in close quarters
for month after month, during winter, for
example, or in grassy yard in warm
weather; these little gravel stones are
very important articles with fowls
quite as important as the teeth of rumn-
ating animals. Fowls swallow their food
broken or not, and it enters the crop or
first stomach, and remains in it until it
has become softencd more or less, when
a small quantity at a time, Just as grain
runs into a grist mill, is forced into the
gizzard, among the gravel stones. This
gizzard is strong, muscular stomach,
and plays night and day, when there is
grst to grind, similar to a bellows, con-
tracing and expanding. thus forcing the
gravel stones INFO tie grain. and break
ing il into fragments, and lriturating the
whole mass; after which ii il IN suit
able condition to lie quickly di"ts;cl. OF
course, these little stones will become
very dull, after having been in operation
for month or :wo, and the gizzard. ike
an economical miller, throws them cut
OF doors, and demands better set: and
If they are not furnished OF course the
grist is not half ground, and OF course
more than twice as much food Is necc>-
sary to sustain life, and form eggs, az
would be required were it well ground
and OF course the eggs of fowls would
cost double in this case that they would
in another with the same food This
suggests the Importance of supplying
fowls and bird, in cages with plenty OF
sharp Gravel stone, and Of having their
food bruised or ground fine before they
eat it; and it suggests the Importance OF
allowing fowls TO :eed themselves. When
fowls have access to grain all the time
we see them eat in the morning only a.
few kernels at time, and after an hour
or so, they will take q few kernels more,
and thus they pass the entire day by cat
ing little at a time, and very often.
The philosophy of their eating 50 fire.
quently and but little at a time, =, the
food has sufficient time to become soft
ened in the crop before it passes into the
gizzard, and it has sufficient time TO be
thoroughly ground and digested where
as, when fowls are not allowed to have
access to their food, but are fed once or
twice day, they become very hungry
and swallow as much as their crops will
hold at one feeding. Now for several
hours no food will be softened sufficiently
to pass into the gizzarl, consequently
their grist mill must stand idle. The
moistened grain swells and distentls the
crop of the fowl, and it feels bv no means
comfortable. Shortly all the food in the
crop is IN the proper condition to be
ground, and the result is, that it is forced
through the gizzard with SO much rapid
ty that it is not half ground, and, there
fore. cannot be half digested and if it i.
not half digested, of course not half the
nutrlmcnt, or egg producing material,
can be extracted from it. Nor is this the
greatest drawback attending feeding fowls
only once or twice day. When fowl
fills It's crop at one feeding, before the
food can possibly get out of it, it begins
to heat up, and arrangement and i'll d.
gcston follow, very much as is the case
when we fill our stomachs as full as they
can he crammed
The way to feed fowls, and par,icu-
larry those that are laying, or being fat
tened, Is to allow them to have free ac-
cess to food at all times. In this way
they can always supply the demand of
their stomachs and grinding apparatus.
exactly as food is needed; and they will
tatten more rapidly, or lay more esgS,
and consume much less food than they
will eat twice day.
My practice now is. and always has