During the first period all the fowls seemed in good health except the
carbonaceous fed chickens; they, during this as in all succeeding
periods, were restless and peevish, always moping or hunting for
something to eat, though their trough was filled. When fed they would
greedily take a few mouthfuls and then, with their hunger still
unappeased, would leave the dish. They always ate ravenously the green
food which was given them, as did the hens and chickens of Lot I. The
hens of Lot II., on the contrary, seemed quite willing to squat about
the pen and subsist on the maize diet, and strangely enough cared
little for green food. The clear maize diet was accompanied by such
ill effects that the chickens of each lot, after the first period,
were given daily each one-fourth ounce of wheat, and the hens each one
ounce. The wheat was increased during the fourth and fifth periods in
the case of the chickens to one ounce each. During the second period
one of the chickens fed nitrogenous food, and during the third period
another of the same lot were taken ill and removed from the
experiment. Both seemed to be suffering from impacted crops, as the
stomach and gizzard in each case were found to be empty.
The fact that the sick chickens disliked the nitrogenous ration, and
since the first period the amount of food eaten by the hens and
chickens of Lot I had continually decreased, led to the belief that
their food might be too nitrogenous, and as during the last days of
the third period one of the hens in Lot I was also ill, it was decided
to discontinue the use of cotton seed meal and to use linseed meal
instead. The hen recovered soon after the change in food.
The supply of skim milk running short in the last two periods, water
was used instead in mixing the ration of the lots fed nitrogenous
food.
At the beginning of the fifth period one-half of the linseed meal in
the ration of Lot I was removed, and cotton seed meal substituted.
This combination seemed a happy one, for on this ration both hens and
chickens made large gains.
At the end of the experiment little difference could be seen in the
hens of the two groups; but the two lots of chickens were in striking
contrast. While the chickens fed on nitrogenous food were large,
plump, healthy, active, and well feathered, the chickens fed on a
carbonaceous ration were in general much smaller, sickly, and in
several cases almost destitute of feathers. Two of them had perfectly
bare backs, and so ravenous were they for flesh and blood that they
began eating one another.
The inability of the chickens fed on a carbonaceous diet to throw out
new feathers and the ability of the chickens fed on a nitrogenous diet
to grow an enormous coat of feathers is a splendid illustration of the
effect of the composition of the food in supplying certain
requirements of animal growth. It was plain to see that maize, even
when assisted by a small amount of wheat and green clover, could not
supply sufficient nitrogen for the growth of feathers.
It will thus be seen that while both lots of hens lost weight during
the experiment, the loss was slightly greater with those fed
nitrogenous food, but these produced by far the most eggs.
The chickens fed on nitrogenous food just about doubled in weight,
while those fed carbonaceous food only added about one-third to their
weight.