Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1920 — BEEF SCRAPS AND FISH MEAL FOR FOWLS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR PRODUCTION OF EGGS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BEEF SCRAPS AND FISH MEAL FOR FOWLS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR PRODUCTION OF EGGS

(Prepared by the United State* Department of A«ricu!ture.) On the average farm where poultry are kept as a aide line; meat meal and fish setups areusually little used » the ration because, as a rule, they are extremely expensive compared with the other nutrient* commonly furnished the fowls. Many farmers make up for thia deficiency of protein in the ration by the liberal feeding of skim milk. Other* maintain their hens on farm-grown grain without the essential supplementary protein, aad as a consequence suffer a pronounced loss in the yield of eggs. It is economy for the general farmer to utilize such high-priced feed as beef scraps and fish meal, as generally he feeds only a small amount of this material while its influence on the egg yield is markedly perceptible and decidedly profitable to the producer. Unless the farmer can supply plenty of protein in the form of rabbits, horse meat, wild game, fish or skim milk, it is advisable that be, by all means, purchase and feed meat meal or fish meal regularly to his flock.

Beef scraps, fish meal, or other poultry nutrients which are rich in protein are essential to produce a regular and dependable supply of eggs. However, in some sections of the country these materials are rarely available on account of the high transportation costs and the distance from production centers. Poultry raisers In these localities have to utilise substitutes. In many districts of the Southwest jackrabbits are used as a valuable poultry feed. Rabbits of this type are not desirable as a human food during certain seasons of the year and, to many persons, they are always object ionable. As a consequence, their use as a food for hens Is economic and efficient. as otherwise the meat Is usually wanted It Is desirable to remove the skin from the jackrabbit and suspend the body by means of a cord or wire in the poultry house. Of course, feeding In thia manner la advisable only during the period of cold weather when the meat will keep well, or during the summer season when there pre enough fowls in the house to consume the rabgins to decompose. — Good Use for Waste Rabbits. Jackrabbits are so objectionable in some of the Southwestern farming country that huge drives are organised. for the extermination of the peats. Hundreds of ranchers, farmers and hunters will form a compact line and traverse a rabbit-infested territory, killing or driving away all the rabbits which come to their path. If the rabbit drive occur* during cold whether a considerable number of the rabbit* may be frozen and kept in this condition for toe use of the flock throughout toe winter season. The carcasses can then be thawed out and suspended Yfi toe poultry house as suggested above, without cleaning, or if desired, the meat can be cooked and fed to this form to the hens and pullets. This is a valuable use of rabbit meat, as ordinarily the hundreds of thousands of carcasses are wasted end allowed to decay on the plains and cultivated fields where the animals were killed.

Horse meat, also, makes a good chicken feed. In some sections where the sanitary laws do not prohibit the deeding of horse meat to fowls, extensive poultry raisers buy old, wornout dobbins and slaughter them and feed their meat to the poultry. This to done <m A «qrie M parts at rwilforoteOperators report increased yields by the hens as a conse«uence of the liberal use of meat in itbe ration. Several Arizona poultry farmers formerly made a practice of feeding wild burro meat to their hens with as attractive and interesting «- traits as come from the feeding of Bohm Am. Thene ranchers wed to pay bounties for rounding Ffah Make Good Food.

grounds. Some of the Long Island duck farmers, who turn off as many as 100,000 ducklings a year, make an annual practice of employing fishermen especially to catch flsh to feed to the ducks. The fish usually are boiled and supplied to the ducks in a cooked condition, being highly, relished and a particularly fattening food. Ration* for Layer*. In order to obtain an abundance of eggs It is necessary to have healthy, vigorous stock, property fed. The following are good grain mixtures for laying stock, the proportion* being by weight: Ration 1. Ration 1 Equal part* of: • part* cracked corn. Cracked corn. 1 part* oat*. Wheat 1 part wheat Oat* Ratton S. 2 part* cracked corn 1 part oat*. A choice of any one of these rations should be scattered in the Utter twice daily, morning and evening. Either of the followidg suggested dry-mash mixtures should be fed In a dry-mash hopper, allowing the fowls to have access to it at all times. Maah No. L 1 part beef scrap. 1 part* cornmeal. Mash No. 2. 1 part bran. — — 2 part* cornmeal. 1 part middlinsa 1 part beet *crap. When fowls do not have access to 1 natural green feed, sprouted oats, cabbage, mangels, cut clover, etc., should be fed. When wet mashes are fed, be sure that they are crumbly and not sticky. Plenty of exercise Increases the egg yield. Fresh, dean drinking water should be always provided. Charcoal, grit and oyster shell should be placed before the fowls so that they can have access to them at all times.

Chickens Are Not Strict Vegetarians—They Thrive on Moat and Fish.