Scientific American Supplement, No. 795, March 28, 1891Various
History
Scientific American Supplement, No. 795, March 28, 1891
Various
Science -- Periodicals
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.
PRODUCTION OF EGGS.
During the first week the carbonaceous fed hens laid three eggs while
the others laid two. The two groups were, therefore, practically
evenly divided at the start as to the condition of the laying stage.
At the end of the first period the nitrogenous fed hens had laid
forty-three eggs and the carbonaceous fed hens had laid twenty. During
the next twenty-five days the former laid thirty and the latter six;
during the third period the former laid six and the latter not any.
From this time on no eggs were received from either group. The decline
in egg production was probably due in large part to the fact that the
hens began to moult during the second period, and continued to do so
during the rest of the experiment.
The eggs laid by the nitrogenous fed hens were of small size, having a
disagreeable flavor and smell, watery albumen, an especially small,
dark colored yolk, with a tender vitelline membrane, which turned
black after being kept several weeks. While the eggs of the
carbonaceous fed hens were large, of fine flavor, of natural smell,
large normal albumen, an especially large, rich yellow yolk, with
strong vitelline membrane, which was perfectly preserved after being
kept for weeks in the same brine with the other eggs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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