The Optimum Protein Content of Rations for Growing Chicks

Efficiency and economy in the production of chickens requires that protein, the most expensive class of nutrients, be present in rations in definite and optimum proportions. There are in the literature of animal production no adequate scientific studies of protein requirements of chickens. The desirability of an investigation of this subbject, therefore, is apparent; however, inasmuch as this project involves unsolved problems of underlying science, as well as experimental technic, it should be regarded as a preliminary exploration of the field covered, rather than as a research of final character. METHODS OF EXPERIMENTATION The general method of experimentation was to feed White Leghorn chicks from the age of two weeks to the age of eighteen weeks weighed quantities of rations differing as to protein, and to judge the results by the gain in weight of the birds, and by the chemical analysis of the rations and of the resulting excreta. . . .