Hemp Seed is frequently given to cause the increased production of eggs, an effect which it can only produce at the sacrifice of the health of the fowls. Hemp is used in India as a most powerful medicine; the evil effects of the seeds on caged birds are known to all bird keepers. I regard it as one of the most injurious substances given to fowls.

Fresh Green Vegetables form an indispensable addition to the food of poultry. Those having a free range in the country supply themselves with this kind of food; when they are kept in other situations they should be supplied daily with turf, cabbage, lettuce, or turnip leaves, and in the absence of these substances, as on shipboard, a little moistened corn, allowed to sprout, will be found very advantageous.

Cooked Vegetables, such as parsnips, carrots, turnips, &c., are much relished, particularly the former; they form an useful and wholesome variation in the diet.

Animal Food.—The most advantageous animal food for fowls, and on which they make the most rapid and healthy progress, consists in the worms, snails and insects that they obtain naturally when unconfined; I do not think that there is any other kind of food which conduces so much to their healthy condition; where it cannot be obtained, a small quantity of fresh meat (either raw or cooked) may be chopped small and given to them; it is, however, but a poor substitute for the natural insect food. The maggots of the flesh fly, obtained by hanging up some meat to putrefy, are often employed, but I doubt very much, whether, in wholesomeness, they are at all equal to worms, and the plan is objectionable from the offensive odour of the putrefying meat; if it is thought desirable to employ maggots the best mode is to allow the animal substance to remain exposed to the air until thoroughly fly-blown, if it is then buried eighteen inches deep, the maggots remain under ground until they attain their full size, when they work their way towards the surface, before changing into the perfect insects; the fowls soon discover their approach, and by scratching obtain a plentiful supply; the maggots by working their way through the soil are cleansed from any adhering putridity, and the search for the gradual supply affords amusement for the fowls; even employed in this way, however, I do not think flesh maggots so desirable as worms.

Tallow Chandler’s Greaves, which are left on melting the fat from the stale scraps of the butchers, and the putrid accumulation of the marine store shop, are strongly recommended by some persons as causing an increased quantity of eggs. Animal substances which have once been in a state of putrefaction cannot by any subsequent process be formed into healthy food, and I can state from experience that greaves are exceedingly injurious to laying hens. Even dogs, when fed upon greaves, become offensive, mangy, and out of condition; their effect upon fowls cannot be less injurious.

It will not, I trust, be thought that the subject of food has been treated at an undue length, for I am confident that by far the greater number of diseases that occur in fowls arise from improper feeding. I have, therefore, arranged the following Table, in order to render the comparison of the relative value of the different substances more easily made.

TABLE
Showing the number of pounds of different substances contained
in every 100lbs. of grain, &c., &c.
[When a (—) is used it signifies that the quantity has not been exactly
ascertained.]

Every 100 lbs. of B C D E F G
lb. lb. lb. lb. lb. lb.
Wheat contains 12 12 3 70 1 2
Bran, Middlings, &c. ” 14 18 6 53 — 5
Oats, with husk ” 9 ½ 15 6 47 20 2
Oatmeal ” 9 18 6 63 2 2
Barley ” 11 11 2 60 14 2
Malt Dust ” 6 30 — — — 8
Indian Corn ” 10 11 8 66 5 1
Rice, husked ” — 7 — 80 — a trace
Dhoors ” 12 11 — 70 4 2
Buckwheat ” — 11 — — — —
Peas, &c. ⎫ ” 15 25 2 48 8 2
Beans ⎬
Tares
Lentils ⎭
Potato ” 75 2 a trace 19 3 ¾

My position in connection with the Cottage Gardener, has given me the opportunity of examining more dead and diseased fowls than perhaps ever fell to the lot of one individual; and, as the most certain result of my experience, I can state that more than one half the cases that come under my care, or that are examined by me after death, are caused by errors in feeding.