Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-01-10

letin by DIR. Raymond Pearl, sections
of which have been given in this de-
partment during the past four weeks,
he states that actual practical poultry
feeding is much more of an art than
a science, in the present state OF
knowledge. While for pedagogical rea-
snrs it seems wise in the teaching OF
poultry husbandry to spend consid-
cradle amount of time in calculating
balanced rations and nutritive ratios
it is very doubtful if all such activity
has any very real or tangible relation
to practical poultry feeding.
Such attempts at science of poul-
try feeding would appear to suffer
from a serious defect. The assump-
ton is made in calculating nicely
balanced ration that all hens are 60
ing to partake of this ration in the
same way. But this is very far from
the biological actually Some indi-
vidual hens like no grain except corn,
and If fed mixture will eat only corn
Others are very partial to beef scrap.
and so on. To anyone who studies the
behavior of fowls it is clear that the
ration on paper and the ration in the
crop are two very different things.
Acquaintance With Fowls.
The successful feeding of poultry de-
ponds upon experience and aequaint-
ance with fowls. The basic Biological
factor is, once more, individuality
Each individual hen is an independent
living thing, possessing well marked
likes and disiikes of her own with re-
spect to food There can be no ques-
ton that the best results in the way
of egg production and meat production
would be obtained If skillful feeder
could feed each individual fowl by and
for itself. Evidence that this is the
case is ound in the fact. which Is
universal wherever poultry is kept,
that on the average fowls kept IN
small fiocks of say under 20 birds each'
do relatively much better than larger
flocks. The production and money re-
turns per bird are greater. The fund-
amental reason for this is that the
birds in small fiocks get better care
as individuals. When man has only
such a small number to take care OF
he can recognize their individual Pc
culiarities more ca silly. Furthermore
an individual bird stands a better
chance of having its peculiar taste
igratified in a small than in a large
flock.
So while the biological ideal would
be to feed each bird individually, this
is obviously impossible in practice
With poultry the individual unit OF
production (the hem is so small tha1
it must be handled in f1ocks. The cor
rect principle of management Is 70
feed and handle a flock in such a way
as to afford the maximum opportunity
for the expression of qualification OF
the individual preferences OF the COM
ponent units, with a minimum labor
cost. The larger the flock and the
plant as a whole, the more machine
like the methods of feeding and hand-
ling must be. They must of necessity
be calculated to suit that mythical
creature, the average hen. Coineident-
ally the total production or profit per
bird will diminish. Presently point
is reached in size of plant where the
outgo exceeds the income over pc
Rod of years. Such plant ir II mas
a hustling business man at the heau
takes a fancy name to itself, advertises
a great deal, invents system, writes
and sells a book about it, manufac-
lures incubators and supplies, in gener-
al epdeavors to make a loud noise
abou. what profitable thing the poul-
try business is, and finally goes dis
mally. completely and permanently
broke
Satisfying Individual Tastes.
In the practical feeding OF hocks OF
poultry large enough TO be a CONNER
cha! proposition, the methods Wnlch
have been worked out empiricaliy py
the successful poultryman are essen
TALLY attempts to satisfy the indivldu-
al tastes of the birds to as great
degree as possible, at minimum Ia
Dor cost. This result is obtained In
practice by offering to the flock va
riety of food materials so that they
may have some opportunity or cnolce
as to what they shall eat. If we iced
corn. wheat, and oats the fowl which
likes corn has the opportunity to i've
on corn. whereas the fowl which likes
about three parts wheat and one part
oats is able to satisfy her taste In this
regard.
AS result of this manifest need
for a. variety of food it has come about
that the practice now generally ac-
cepted as best is to put regularly be-
fore fowls food substances belonging
10 four different categories. These
categories are:
l. Dry whole Cor coarsely proken)
grains &c. e., corn, wheat. oats, barley,
etc.)
2. Ground grains (e. g.. bran, mid
dlings. corn meal, linseed meal and
other finely ground grains.)