The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1918-08-23
lRD([I1lET
USES FOR DIFFERENT FOWLS
Poultry. Other Than Chickens, Have
important Place in Increasing
Needed Food Supply.
prepared By the United States Depart.
ment of Agriculture.)

prepared by the United States Depart.
ment of Agrieulture.)
The hen, first and last, is the main
dependence for increasing the supply
of white meat and eggs, but she re-
quires the aid of turkeys, guineas,
geese, and ducks, just as, on a dairy
Farm, the COW requires the aid of pigs,
sheep, aud goats. The setting of the
standard at 100 hens per farm is safe.
but no such arbitrary standard can
be ST, for the other kinds of poultry.
The small farm, with grain fields of
neighbofing farms in proximity to the
barn and doOryard, would. perhaps, be
better without turkeys. The farm
through which no streams run and
which has no large pond would per-
haps be better without ducks. But
The circumscribed farm on which tur-
Keys would be a disadvantage may be
well supplied with streams and ponds
so that ducks would be unusually
profitable, and the farm that has no
streams and ponds may have large
range for turkeys. Each farm family
will have. to determine for itself what
poultry can be prpftably kept in adj
ditlon to 100 hens, bearing in mind
always that an adequate number
should be kept of all the kinds for
which free range can be found.
Turkeys, ranging farther afield,
prey upon insect forms that escape
the hens. From the time the young
are old enough to begin foraging for
themselves. perhaps early in June, UNI
I'll near frost, turkeys take the bulk
0f their food from field insects, de.
yOuring millions Of grasshoppers and
other injurious forms in meadow and
pasture. In regions where wooded
areas are still fairly extensive, mast
Is an important item In the diet OF
the turkey. When the insect stores be-
gin to fall the mast larders are be,
ginning to be filed. Feeding oil
acorns, chestnuts, beech nuts, and the
like, turkeys will go long way toward
fattenlng themselves for the Thanks.
giving or Christmas market and will
not require much feeding of corn or
other grain to finish them. Generally
speaking, turkeys Will require n larger
feeding OF grain than chickens TO fl
them for market, but, as they utilize
forms Of waste that hens and their
broods Would not reach. the keeping
of a fair number of turkeys is good
economy.
h Guinea fowls utilize still other kinds
Of waste that would escape both hens
and turkeys. Taking wider range
than chickens and yet not quite SC
wide as turkeys. keeping largely to
thickets and weed patches, and com
hitting fewer depredations against
field and garden than either chickens
or turkeys, requiring little feeding al
any time, being prolific layers, during
the.g season OF eggs that are thought
by many to have a richer and flnel
flavor even than hen eggs the guinei
I loMl 10 III tNOubllilN ntCtnSlAs VII III
farm where serious effort Is made e
convert all waste into meat and eggs
Geese hold still another sector II
the line of the poultry army tina
makes war against waste. They toucl
TANKS with the chickens in utilizing
waste grain about stables and feeding
pens. In larger measure than chick
ems or any other kind of poultry, the!
are grazing stock, taking their Twin,
In large part from the ordinary grasses
of the pastures.
The one kind of poultry of question
able economic status on farms is th,
pigeon. Almost exclusively n grail
eater, the pigeon renders no notable
service as a conserver of waste, eY
cept it might be shattered grain in thu
fields, and that in large measure woul,
be taken up by other poultry and b.
pigs. The pigeon has its economic
place in the scheme of urban poutr.
production, but, except in Isolated In
Stances where conditions Gre peculiar
ly favorable, It's production on genera
farms may not be desirable.