POULTRY.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2128, 18 December 1880, Page 4

POULTRY.

[“Mark Lana Express.”} Prom all quarters farmers are being advised to pay greater attention than they have hitherto done to the breeding of poultry. People are now beginning to find out that poultry-keep-ing can bo made remunerative, and mare especially ought this to be the case with farmers, as we hove already pointed out. With the ordinary poultry keeper, who buys corn by the pock or bushel, it may be difficult to make both ends meet at the end of the year, as of coarse, bnying in snob small quantities, the purchaser is compelled to pay very dearly for tho com ; bat with the grower,it to far different. Yet it often happens that where there is an abundance of any kind of cod one gets careless and wasteful. We were recently visiting a farm-house where- a number of poultry are kept, and a very useful lot of birds they were—a cross between the Dorking and Brahma. These are fallowed to ran loose through tho yard, where tfcey pick up a great deal of food ; but we wore astonished

to find them also in the barns scratching and soiling the new-threshed corn. It was not so much what the birds consumed as the injury done, and the annoyance of finding them amongst the corn. Snob waste of course materially reduces the profit that might ba made out of the poultry, and yet with a little consideration and attention the birds could have been prevented gaining admission to the building. _ _ In feeding poultry cheaply and quickly tne great secret to success is to give the birds just as much as they will oat up clean j leathern feel they could eat just a little more if it was given them, and that they still possess an unsatisfied appetite. At this time of the year the first meal, consisting of barley meal and middlings, it mixed with skim mils or butter milk so much the better; if these are not to be had, then scalded water—not raw_ water. This meal may be given as early in the morning as possible—7 a.m. is not too early ; a little corn about midday; then again at 5 p.m. a plentiful supply of corn. Wheat is the cheapest and best kind of staple food, but fowls, like other animals, require a change, but it is in the judicious use of various kinds of food that the best results are obtained. Good barley is always relished by the birds ; the loan kind they do not care much for. Oats, if sound and good in quality, are also useful, especially for ducks. At first poultry do not care much for maize, but after they hava once acquired a taste for this they eat it in preference to ell other kinds of corn. Maize is about tbe cheapest food, but it should only be given occasionally, for it has a tendency to oauso the fat to become yellowish in colour, which many purchasers of dead poultry havo a moat decided objection to. Ground oats is also another excellent food, when mixed with milk or scalded water, but if kept too long it becomes rancid, and is not then much cared for by the Now, the farmer has all these kinds of food always at hand. There is no expense of cartage or commission to dealers or to the corn merchant. All these amounts he can put in his own pocket. The present has on the whole been a tolerably good year for com growing, and the harvest has, in most instances, been got in under very favorable conditions. A good harvest means prosperity throughout the country,, as it stimulates all branches of trade; People will therefore have more money to spend in snob luxuries as poultry, ducks, geese, and turkeys ; for, after all, it is only the well-to-do classes who can afford to indulge their tastes and desires with poultry. At present grain of all kinds is cheap and plentiful, and the farmer cannot do better than use some of the corn in fattening birds for market, or in keeping a number of this year’s pullets for winter laying, as there is sure to be a good demand for both poultry and eggs. We are pleased to be able to announce that several classes will this year bo made at the Crystal Palace show for the most suitable crossbred birds best adapted for the table. Hitherto these prizes have been offered for the heaviest bird, and have generally been awarded to one or the other of the Asiatic varieties, which were carefully fattened up for the competition. _ ' Another noticeable fact in connection with poultry shows is that at many of these classes are being made for dead poultry. At the Brighton Show, to be held on the 16th of October, there are four such classes, with three prizes for each class, viz., best couple of fowls, best couple of ducks, best goose, and the best turkey. Surely it would ba worth while for some of our readers to make an entry or two.