Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1883-03-29
Poultry Notes.

w hCAA iOhln bAO aiA AOhAlNs
and in apparent good health, then is
the time, if ever, to economist in feed,
particularly as to corn. Try oats for a
while. bucRwheat or rye. Quit a corn
diet for laying fowls already fat, or
you may soon expect losses.
Corn is popular as poultry diet,
but it is very easy to feed too much of
it, particularly TO the larger breeds.
All corn makes them too fat and the
great bulk of fat which sometimes &C
cumulates about the internal organs
makes trouble in laying. When hens
in apparent health die suddenly on the
roost at night, it sometimes comes
from a disarrsngement of the organs,
caused by too much fat Wheat in its
various forms is safer diet than corn.
Corn once day in winter is enough.
On the subject how fowls grind
their feed,"S. Edward Todd remarks:
Fowls have no teeth to grind or mas
ticate their food with, and the best they
are able to do with it is to pick and
swallow by them, and as they are sur
rounded by a tough pellicle or skin,
which the Juice OF the stomach of the
animals will not readily dissolve or di-
gest, they should obtain no nourishment
at all from the grain if this tough pei
licle was not broken.
Now, if we dissect the gizzard of
fowl of any kind, we find a lot of small
gravel stones, which are usually the
hardest kind of flint, granite or sand
stone. Surely here is pocket edition
of farm grist-mills.
Fowls swallow their food, broken or
not, and it enters the crop or first
stomach, and remains in it until it
has become softeled more or less,
when a small quantity at a time, just
as grain runs into grist mill, is forced
into the gizzard among the gravel
stones. This gizzard is strong, mus
cular stomach, and plays night and
day, when there ID a grist to grind,
similar to bellows, contracting at
times, thus forcing the gravel stones
into the grain and breaking it into
fragments and triturating the whole
mass, after which it is IN a suitable
condition to be quickly digested.
DURING the next thirty days JOY will
come to the pOulterer when the little
"peeps" emerge from their prison cells
and show signs of activity, strength
and hardness. This month is early in
the northern states for young chicks,
but not too early for those who have
provided beforehand proper accom-
moda' ions for their comfort snd safety.
1t is an easy matter usually to get
out broods early in spring, but to care
for them afterward, and bring them
safely through the earliest stages of
growth, from the time they leave the
shell till they can be trusted to open
coops outside of doors, much care and
attention is requisite TO prevent NOR
tality among them. The first month
or two is the most critical period;
while yet downy they are very tender.
Their downy covering is not able to re-
sist the cold winds or pelting rains.
A great deal depends on the care
and health-giving food fed the young
lings, to fit them for an active ard use
full life. Ii you nave good shed or
Clubhouse, facing the south, where the
chicks can spend the cold and wet days,
SO much the better. 1t is of the ut
most importance in March and April
that the chicks be kept from damp
ness and chilly winds which accom-
pany these months. A heap of sand
or dry coal ashes spread over the floor
will serve q good purpose in keeping
them clean and healthy.
Next in Importance to good care, is
generous and judicious feeding. Above
all things, do not feed the younglings
on sour, sloppy corn meal, Tor take our
word for it, it is poor feed to build up
vigorous constitution. Corn meal 10
good in its place when properly pre-
pared; but when usei in porridgy
state it is unit for chicks.-Poultry
World.