POULTRY SCRATCHINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 45, 22 February 1905, Page 7

POULTRY SCRATCHINGS.

As tlie demand for eggs grows, and tlie trade increases towards outside markets, it will be advisabla for poultrykeepers to take into consideration tlieir customers 5 requirements. In doing this it will be well to remember that Great Britain is the best market in the world for poultry products, and that there they prefer the brown-tinted egg to the -srhiteskelled article. Breeders will do vreli te bear this in mind. It is not good business to produce an article tnac a customer has little desire for, when -pithcut more trouble lie can be pleased by giving him an article he longs for.

Tlie breeding of poultry for egg-farm-ing is likely to extend very considerably during the nest few years. The production ox ogjrs for marketing purposes entails less trouble to the poultry-keeper, besides returning - him cash week afcer week. There is a constant demand for eggs, and although at certain seasons the output exceeds the demand, the oxeess quantity can be controlled by pruducers preserving the surplus by waterglass methods until such time as the scarce season arrives. The preserved eggs during tlie autumn and printer ssasons will realise 100 per cent, more than can be now got for fresh eg-gs, and therefore it may be expected. tlia.t a. eerta.l22 proportion of the eggs laid will be put away by the method suggested.

A new and simple method for testing eggs is published in Gennau papers. It is based upon the fact that the air chamber in the flat end of the egg increases with age. If the egg is placed in a saturated solution of common salt it will show an increasing inclination to float -with the long axis vertical. A scale is attached to the vessel containing the salt solution so that the inclination of the floating egg toward the horizontal can be measured. In thi3 way the age of the egg can be determined almost to a day. A fresh egg lies in a horizontal position at the bottom of the vessel; an egg from three to five days old shows an elevation of the fiat end, so that its long axis forms an angle of 20 degrees. With an egg eight days old the angle increases to 45 degrees; with an egg"l 4 days old to CO degrees, and with one three weeks old to 75 degrees, while an egg a month old floats vertically upon the pointed end.

Very few people realise how sensitive the egg is to bad odours, in spite of the many warnings given, and some thir.ithat the shell is a sufficient protection against any contamination from without. But the shell is porous, and the albumen, or white of the egg, quickly absorbs and holds the flavour of any bad odour to which it is exposed, as it also does to any bad flavour in the food given. It is scarcely less susceptible in this respect than the milk products. As the hen seems to be almost devoid of the sense of taste, care should be taken to give her only well flavoured foods. and the feeding of partially decayed meat or fish, onions and other smelling food should never be allowed when hens are laying. But care also needs to be taken to have the nests clean and sweet, i and never to put the eggs where they will be tainted by codfish, kerosene, or anything else. If it is found necessary to use kerosene on the nests, do it at ni<?ht, that the odour may evaporate before the hens use them. But a betteT way is to get clean boxes from the grocer when the old ones get so that they need to be kerosened.

WOLFE'S SCHNAPPS purines the Mood through the kidneyi