LATEST TELEGRAPHIC.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 35, 23 December 1879, Page 3

LATEST TELEGRAPHIC.

(per press agency.) Wellington, Monday, 7 p.m. Jessie Walker, for wealing male apparel, in the streets, was let off with one hour's imprisonment. John Berry, for assault, was fined 40s, or three days' imprisonment. POULTRY BREEDING AT IiOUDAN. ♦ In the neighborhood of Ilouuan, whence large supplies of poultry and eggs are sent up to the markets of Paris, the branch of industry has now reached such dimensions that the sales effected average at least 8,00,000 francs a year. According to the Journal d' Agriculture Pratique, the main point aimed at is to keep only a particular breed of fowls which develop very early, so that they aro saleable when only three months old. Ha'ching and rearing ara carried on artificially, and consequently the production goes on all the year round without reference to weather or seasons. Two persons suffice to look after 10,000 eggs distributed among a number of hatching apparatus, the fuel required for heating these costing 3 francs to 4 francs a day. The chicks thus hatched are found to bo more lively and stronger than those from eggs incubated by hens, and also to grow and fatten quicker and better. Food is given liberally, the maxim being adopted, that to turn the food into flesh and the fleshi into money as soon as possible, is the most profitable in the long run. Milk, buttermilk, barley, or oatmeal, and a little rice refuse form the principal diet. When three months old £he chickens thus fed are readily sold at an aver* age price of 5| francs. The difference between these birds and such as have been obliged to cater for themselves is very -marked ; the foiv mer having a fine white skin and abundant juicy flesh, while the latter present more bone than meat, and what little there is of this is poor in quality. The cost of 120 chicks amounts to 36 francs for the hatching process, 250 francs for meal, and 40 francs for milk ; an average 5.71 francs a piece. Supposing only 100 of them thrive, each bird will have c ist 3.26 frans. which at the selling price of 5h francs before mentioned, leaves a net gain of 2.24 francs per head.