POULTRY NOTES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3059, 21 April 1917, Page 15

POULTRY NOTES

(By Chanticleer.) The Price of Eggs. The usual winter shortage of eggs h" 8 arrived, and prices have risen inevitably with tho natural strictures placed on layers. A good many people have a mistaken idea that poultrymeu make a lot of money when eggs are dear. This is a liillaoy. Tew peopJo Ret moro egg 9 than will pay for the food duriag the winter season. There is more money in poultry when eggs are Is. 3d. in tho summer time than ivhen they aro 2s. 6d. in winter. Tho fact that egge rieo to 2s. l)d. is proof thero ia a demand that cannot bo supplied. It is the eamo in every country. In Aiuorica, tho greatest eftjproduciug country in the world, new-laid okss rise from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per* dozen dvery winter. Poultrymen havo tried to coax Nature to relax her stringency. Heated houses, continual light, and every inducement in tho way of food has been practised, but all -of no avail. At this timoi of tho year Amorica ehigs eggs here, and does well oiit of them at 2s. Gα. a dozen. Had we the supply in summer, wo could ehip our eggs to them and sot a similar price. Writers are fond .if using tho winter prices as an argument for importing Asiatic eggs. The question has absolutely no boaring on the matter. Eggs used by bakers are not tho now-laid winter eggs. Theso soar in prico bocauso they are a luxury and people will havo them nt any' price. , • ' , •• Value of Organisation. It is to be regretted thnt many of the public inisconstyao the purpose of poultrymen in organising for better markets. Take first-grade eggs last summer at Is. Id. per doaon. They, were actually cheaper than store eggs of previous years at 10d. por dozen. First-grade aro stamped and guaranteed, they are 2ozs., and over in weight, while store eggs may havo 2 or' 3 in the dozen that aro bad, and half of them weigh ljozs., so that t'hey aro actually dearer than tho first grado article. Organisation among producers does not exist merely to get high prices, but to increase tho value of the products and mnke them, more worth the money paid for them. Organisation means a better article for the consumer, and more of- it.. Tho old country etore c?e: has had its day, and when it is to be the standard under which poultry products are to bo valued, it is.apt to scaro people from going into the business. This restricts production, bo that the public suffer. See what organisation has dorio for table poultry. In Canterbury there is an abundant supply becauso graded poultry has a distinctive value. Good, ducks nßver go below ss. to fis. per pair.v. This encourages duckraising. Good table chickens aro ss. to Bs. per pair: _W_h.en producers know there is a standard • value even in the plentiful season, it encourages the farmer to produce. Were prices allowed'to drop to 3s: for. ducks, and -Is. for table chickens as in the olden days, the farmer would say to his wife: "Here, take a pull, , tho gamo dqos.not pay. Do not use any more good wheat, in feeding poultry." Now prices and quality are standardised, farmers .and their wives crtn produce 'and know approximately what they can receive for them. That's why in one poultry'market in Canterbury the value to-day for poultry realises annually, compared with ,£6OOO five j years ago. Onco eggs are standardised, wo will have no'trouble to increase production. This can only como about by organisation, and it is regrettable that as soon as organisation is aimed at producers aro accused of "forming a trust," etc., when there are. few that benefit inoro than tho consumors.

The Competitions. Tho ogg-laying tests' are well under way. Tug Southland "Times," commenting on the Southland test, says:—"This year's fowls at the egg-laying competition are, on the whole, a more businesslooking lot, and there are not so many beefy birds as were noticeable last test. The spare bird pen calls for some comment. Competitors have in the, majority of eases put in a bird several weoks younger than their competing pen. This is decidedly unjust, and proves the unfairness of the spare bird (in the event of a bird in the pen'of six dying, the epare bird is put in to take the place of the dead bird), as when the bird is put in the pen it lias in some cases been laying several weeks less, than the bird that dies. The Competition Committee in future should see to it that tho spare birds are 6arae age as competing pen." ■ -

Tho Papanui test is in full swing, and this year' we should make a better show than last. ■ There is no lack of support to the competitious in Australia, fiurnley • had i2i entries in the single-pen test, where only 120 wero needed. In the eix-bird test 12G applications, Vhen provision was made for only 100 pens. , Australia is booming in the . poultry industry just now, and has made up its mind to have eomo-of that ,£8,000,000 annually spent by England' in" imported , eggs.. The Utility Poultry Club of Australia failed so far to get the duty increased on imported eggs. They once had a Pure Foods Act to protect them, but while pouiltrymen slept the enemy got to work and had'the Act repealed. The value of eggs and . poultry in Amerioa last year amounted to 000,000. In Minnesota the industry represented ,£7,400,000. Eggs were realising is.. Id , , .to 2e 3ld. nearly . all the season. . . .■' •:

Turkeys. should .be raised in New Zealand more abundantly thnn they are. In Texas last season 1,800,000 were handled, representing There its a great shortage of turkeys in New land, and thousands are being; imported from Australia. _ ~ In the Hawkosbury laying teat, iu Now South Wales, the standard for eggs is 2407„ to the dozen. Birds that could not lay -up to the wight were disqualified. It says much for the breeders when only 8 out of 120 competing birds wore disqualified. In New Zealand we cannot make anything like such e. jjood.Bhowing. Careful breeding and selection is needed to achieve this result. The Rev. Spencer Elliott, Vicar of St. Paul's, Sheffield, in relating .in the local Press liis experiences of his first visit to the Y.M.C.A. huts in Franco, tells a good story of Bishop Gore. Once on board the troopship, he _ says, the order was given to the soldiers— "Packs, off: life-belts on." "I found another clergyman ■on board wliose garb 'indicated some country parsonage. I offered him a life-belt. 'No, thank you,'-lie'answered. ■ 'I'll just drown. I'vo no desire to bo frozen first;' There is "no mistaking that shrug of the shoulders,' and that pronunciation of the words 'drown' and 'first.' I looked at liim again in tho darkness, and, by tho way lie pulled liis' parson's cloak around him as lie settled down, I knew him for what he was —tho Bishop of Oxford."