BULLETIN NO. 22O
The Effect of Certain Grain Rations on the Growth of
_ the White Leghorn Chick and their Iniiuence on
Subsequent Egg-Production
By G. Davis Buckner, A. M. Peter, R. H. Wilkins and J. J. Hooper
In 1916 Buckner, Nollau and Kastlel described some ex-
])C1`11ll€11l[S ill \\'l1l(;l1 young chicks fed 011 grain mixtures con-
taining a relatively higl1 percentage of tl1e a111i11o-acid, lysin,
grew normally, while 111080 fed 011 rations relatively low in
lysin were markedly st1111ted and failed to develop normally,
eve11 tho they remained in an apparently good state of health,
. as shown by their general activity a11d appetite. These cx-
periments were O])(’11 to tl1e criticism that tl1ey were conducted
under laboratory conditions, that tl1e llllllli)(‘l' of chicks l1SC(i ·
was too s111all to justify conclusions and that, because of ‘
tl1e starchy nature of the grain inixtures, lil(’ ]1lClll()d cm-
ploycd i11 their analyses may have given inaccurate numbers
for tl1e an1ino—aeid (llSt1‘il)l1tlO11 i11 the proteins.
To throw further ligl1t on the subject, llll experiment;
was planned in which these points of criticism would be over-
come, as far as possible, and also one intended to determine °
ii the nornial rate of growth of the \Yhite Leghorn chicken, both
when hatched and raised by n1otl1er hens and \\`llCll hatched
artificially Zllltl raised i11 a brooder. each lot bei11g fed an ac-
cepted standard ratio11. It was coiisidered advisable to COI']-
duct., at tl1e SHIIIC time, experiments wherein tl1e greater part
ilknekner, Nollau and Kastle, Pnl. 197. Ky. Ag'] Exper. Sta., Jan.
1910. Amer. Join-. 1·1tys1t»1t»gy, vat. xxxix, xc. 2, 1»··c. 1:·1s, p. 1625.