Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 280, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1915 — Milk for Chickens. [ARTICLE]

Milk for Chickens.

The Storrs experiment station, Storrs, Conn., in Bulletin 80 gives the following conclusions from milk-feed-ing tests: The feeding of milk to young chlqks has a most favorable Influence on the growth and on the lessening of mortality of the chicks. It tends to prevent mortality from all causes, and if fed soon enough and for a sufficiently long period, greatly reduces the death-rate caused by baccillary white diarrhoea.

Sweet and sour milk are apparently of equal value in their relation to growth and mortality. Furthermore, different degrees of souring do not alter the results* of milk feeding. The value of milk as a food for chicks does not depend upon any acids that may be present, nor upon any particular types of micro-organ-isms; but upon one or more of the natural constituents of the milk. When milk is supplied freely to chicks, it becofnes all the more important that they have abundant exercise. This applies more particularly to early-hatched chicks that are brooded wholly or for the most part in doors.

The feeding of sweet or sour milk to young chicks has in no Instance been found to be in any way injurious to the chicks employed in our numerous experiments. If the milk is dean, and not too old, none but the most favorable results should accompany its use as a food for chicks. There is no preference in the choice of sweet or of sour milk, except from the standpoint of convenience. The use of the one or the other should be determined by the circumstances. However, it seems very desirable that the same kind of milk be supplied throughout the milk-feeding period. If the choice is that of sour milk, sour milk should be fed to the end