POULTRY NOTES.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 402, 21 January 1904, Page 5

POULTRY NOTES.

THINGS WORTH REMEMBERING. Be ambitious. Try to have the best birds of your particular breed, and to get the best results;, and if you don't succeed at once in getting right at the top, you will get very near to it. Kemember, this is the risky time with fowls. Bight in the midst of the hot weather, and just coming on to the moulting season, and proper attention if very necessary, V This is the time of year when poultry must be thoroughly, well attended to. The water fountains must be kept clean, and the: food troughs sweet and fresh, and the roosting-houses dry and in presentable condition. Grit is to the hen what teeth are to the human, and as you could not masticate your food without teeth, so 'the hen cannot masticate hers without grit. An old hen that has been shut up and fed with clean, soft feed, for two or three weeks before killing is better than the average young fowl that has been allowed to run around until the day it is dressed. Ho one who has never had an opportunity of testing the matter-will believe how much difference there is be tween poultry dressed as it runs in the yards and that which has been confined and properly finished for the table. Tnere is as much difference between the two kinds of poultry as beween veal and old cow. Sunshine is the best microbe-killer. Give the inside of the house all the sunshine possible during the next few months.

FANCIERS AND UTILITY BREEDERS. An article recently appeared in the Ghristchurch " Press M in which it was sought to show that -fanciers who bred for show purposes had spoilt certain breeds for all useful purposes, and that they were making feathers the main object, to the detriment of the original good laying or.other good qualities. I cannot at all agjree with this argument, and-consider that£were it riot for those who have/- by their and perseverance, brought a number of breeds up to their present state of excellence by competitive showing many of our best and most profitable birds would be almost unknown, and certainly would never have attained to their present position. In fact, we owe a considerable debt to these men, and as to the assertion that the best shew birds are not utility birds, I venture to assert that with a good many breeds if the birds that score in the fanciers' show are tested for useful points they will more than hold their own against any others. Our fanciers make a point of breeding not only for feathers, but also for utility, and before anybody runs down those who are constantly working for he show, let him stop and think where hia particular breed would have been had it not been for the fanciers and their shows,