The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1916-02-29
Providing Green Food
ForFo.uLs During
The Winter Months

The hen expected to lay during
the cold months, must have some
kind OF green food along with her
grain and meat food. Beef scraps,
green cut bone, blood meal or chop
ped raw beef, will take the place of
the bugs and worms they pick up
during the summer but something
must also be provided to take the
place Of the tender blades of grass
picked here and there. Grains in
themselves are too concentrated to
form the whole diet for domesticated
fowls. With a crop filled with no.
thing but grains, the starch in them
becomes pasty and sticky after be-
coming moist and will not move on
easily through the fowls peculiarly
formed alimentary canal unless there
is some bulky substance mixed with
the food. II too much meat food is
fed to force egg production the fowl
becomes protein poisoned. In fact
1t requires much less food II bulky
green foods of some kind are fed reg.
arly, and, of course they are much
cheaper.
At first thought 1t would seem al.
most impossible to have a supply Of
green food during the winter even in
our mild Utah, without considerable
cost. Yet there are several differ.
ent ways of supplying this part OF
the rations. Apple parings, cabbage
and lettuce leaves, which would 9th
erwise be wasted in the kitchen, can
be chopped up with a vegetable cut
ter into pieces small enough for the
fowls to eat, and they form an excel
lent substitute for the grasses c!
summer. Heads of cabbage may be
hung up in the scratching shed, SC
the fowls will be required to jump
for them. This also provides excr
else. Care should be taken, though
not to feed the hens too much cab
bage as 1t will give the eggs a pc.
culiar flavor.
Cabbage, turnips and beets Or any
other vegetables may also be fed in
bag made OF old fish netting hung
up in the poultry house. The COW
ter, SOW small patch of seeds in
cheap and efficient green food for
poultry, but these are usually hard
to find On the open market. II you
want supply OF these for next win
out properly, cultivated and a good
rows, so they can be tended along in
July Or engage some farmer to grow
them for you. You will get more
green food per square foot for your
fowls than with any other vegetable
or plant that | know of, and they
are greatly relished by the fowls.
These beets grow commonly, in good
soil, as large as your hat, If thinned
out properly cultivated and a good
supply Of water provided.
II you live in the suburbs of a city
pooSipiy ehViS 10 u hot uOube near
which grows lettuce during the win.
ter. There are many waste leaves
and they may be obtained at small
cost. In the last few years, alfalfa
has been placed on the market In
the form OF a dry, bulky meal for
poultry. A quantity OF meal is scald.
ed with hot water before It is interd-
ed with hot water before It is intend
as soon as 1t is scalded but It should
be left covered tightly for several
hours to swell up to its normal size.
II should there be mixed with mash
food, SO that 1t will form about one
fourth OF the quantity in bulk. Here
in Utah where alfalfa is so good, so
plentiful and so cheap, 1t can be
ground or cut fine and used as a
substitute for the above mentioned
commercial meal. Pure, clean, clov.
er or alfalfa leaves is equally good
chopped up and scalded and fed in
the same manner as the meal, or a
bale OF clover or alfalfa may be left
in a corner OF the scratching shed
for the fowls. when II will soon be
found that the leaves will all be
picked from the stems; then the
bale may be torn apart, and they