The Importance of Herbage in Poultry Management1

IN RECENT years poultrymen have renewed interest in the enhanced value of green soil-grown crops which appear to be high in nutritive value, espe-cially protein, vitamins A and G, and per-haps other unknown factors. Heretofore, primary emphasis was placed on the need for succulence in poultry rations as fur-nished by sprouted grains and tubers. Of the 6,000 or more species of tame and wild grasses, only five—oats, barley, Sudan grass, wheat, and rye—are used extensively in the Middle West for poultry feeding. This study, recently completed at the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, deals with the economic efficiency of cereal grasses, alfalfa, and milk in poultry man-agement. PARTIAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE Chickens have probably utilized herbage in their diets in one form or another ever since their origin. Beebe (1925) relates that the Jungle Fowl, said to be the pro-genitor of present day poultry, consumes large quantities of tender young bamboo shoots and other grasses as a source of green food. Reaumur (1750) stated: "A vast deal of food our fowls borrow from plants that grow spontaneously and with-out culture, from all sorts of grasses, and from the other plants of our green plots.&quot