The Florida agriculturist., 1905-12-06

and observation on poultry feeding do
not necessarily mean intricate and
puzzling processes. On the contrary
they are simple and easy, requiring
only very ordinary attention, just such
attention i'm fact as must be given to
any process or work requiring some
exercise of judgment.
The greatest obstacle to learning to
feed poultry well is that SO many
amateurs are wholly self trained, and
are taught through books and papers,
and such teaching and training cannot
be anything like as effective as per-
sonal instruction. In addition to this
the poultry keeper who begins in ma
ture life to learn poultry keeping, and
who is trying to learn and to make it
pay at the same time, feels the effect
of his errors and inefficiency much
more than one who learns while work
ing for someone else That is one rea-
son why | always urge people going
into poultry keeping to begin in a
small way and to increase very slowly.
| 1t takes time to acquire skill in feed
ing, and it is terribly expensive to
practice on large stocks of fowls.
Another thing to consider is that the
results of feeding are sometimes de-
pendent upon or affected by circum-
stances which the novice either fails
| to see as in any way related to the
feeding problem does not see in
| their true relation to it. Not infre-
quently the methods he adopts make
good feeding difficult, and sometimes
some little popularity in a persons
way of managing his fowls will, when
Il IiSanunrn1 nf to
adviser for continued poor results.
Such peculiarities and trifing errors
are very hard to locate through cor
respondence.
Leave Out ''OriginaI' Ideas.-In
general l think that a large part of the
difficulties of amateur feeders may
be traced to some original ideas or
combinations of methods that they
have introduced into their poultry
keeping. To me the easy assurance
with which nOvices in poultry keeping
go about the improvement of methods
recommended by experienced poultry
keepers is never ending puzzle. How
few of them are willing to take simple
| instructions and follow them he
letter!
Still, to be fair to the novice, l
must admit that good deal of
what is written for him about poultry
keeping only adds to his confusion,
and as those who know the least
about it are usually the most positive
in assurances of good results if their
instructions are followed, and there
fore seem to him the best instructors,
he is very apt to prefer the less re-
liable instructors and instruction at
| first
If a novice in feeding, (and by
novice, in this connection, l mean any
one who has not acquired a fair skill
in feeding), will follow the method
used by any successful pOultryman
right through, he will generally be
getting fair results within short
time. 1t may be-and often is the
case-that there are poor features,
or unnecessary features in the methods
of the more expert pOultryman. As
to this, the novice should not attempt
to judge, or if he forms an opinion,
should not make it the reason for a
departure from the method but should
learn from some one of more expert
ence whether the change he contem-
plates would work well.
Having adopted general methods of
caring for fowls and of feeding which
have given much satisfaction to some
others that we may call them tested"
matho1c thn nnvica chn1116 diraat a IL