POULTRY NOTES.

Motueka Star, Volume III, Issue 126, 28 October 1902, Page 4

POULTRY NOTES.

} See that all the roosts are low. Poultry in the orchard will keep down the insects.JJ Ten birds well cared for will give more profit than a hundred neglected. Every hen is more or less infested with lice. Examine a few and see if this is not the case. Remove from the pen at once any hen that goes broody. Remember it does not take long to start the eggs incubating. We don’t advise expensive floors in the poultry houses. An earthen floor, raised a few inches above the surrounding ground, is absolutely the best. Shade and an abundant supply of fresh cool water'are very acceptable to the poultry during the hot summer months. It pays to be thorough, energetic, and persevering in any business. Don’t imagine poultry keeping is an exception to this rule. Get rid of all the old stock that are either .unrequired or played out, at once. They may be laying a few eggs just now, when they’re cheap; but table poultry are bringing tip-top prices, and it’s a pity to miss this chance.

During the summer the mash can profitably c >ntain a greater proportim of bran than is usually given.

Greenstuff, too, should be more abundantly supplied than ever, at this season.

The table scraps should all go to the hens ; in the course of a few days they will be returned in the shape of eggs. Salt is an essential part of the poultry ration, and there should be a proportion in every "mash.

About the only substitute for meat is milk ; on dairy farms, this, of course, is available, and should be used freely, but then, all our folks are not dairy farmers, and they will find the soup from waste meat and bones or the manufactured meat meals the most profitable, economical and the simplest sources for supplying animal food. The farmer could well afford to give more attention to the proper feeding of his poultry. Usually, plenty ot food of the right sort is available, but it is the manner of feeding that needs changing. Just sit down some of you and figure out whether it will not pay you to attend to this matter.

Keen appetites and good health, (says Commercial Poultry), are boon companions in the poultry yard. Andalusians are egg machines. Eggs are the most profitable feature of poultry raising. Meat in some form is abs flutely necessary for the best results in the egg basket. Give a little green bone occasionally. Don’t give the chickens sloppy food. If any is left about, it ferments this hot weather, gees sour, and causes scours.

The easiest method of using disinfectants on the walls, roofs, and nestboxes is to use a common garden syringe, and shower the inside with Cooper’s sheep dip, Pbenyle, Quibell’s or any of the soluble coal tar preparations now so easily obtained at stores. This is far easier and cleaner to use than whitewash, is more thorough in the effect, and to some extent hell s to preserve the wood. Being easy to do, it f*sn be done often, and thus vermin will never make headway. Some exception may, perhaps, be made in the ca.se of old vermin-infected houses, but i these should be pulled down and burnt and new houses built. Do not keep too many fowls in a pen ; it is far better to cull down closely than to do this, for a. smaller number will do so much better.

DOOLEY ON THE TOIL OF MILLIONAIRES. “A hard time th’ rich have injyin* life,” said Mr Dooley. “I’d thrade with thim,” said Mr Henpessy. “I would not,” said Mr Dooley. “’Tis too much like hard wurruk. Higgins, th* millyionaire, whin he was beginnin* to breed money with a dollar he owed and a dollar he took Frm some wan tjrat wasn’t there at <th’ time was happy. . But as his stable grows and he’s got enough to injye life, he finds he’s up against it. “Arly in th’ mornin* Higgins has got to be out exercisin’ a horse to keep th" horse in good health. Higgins has no business on a horse an’ he knows it. He was built an’ idyc&ted f’r a cooper an’ th’ horse don’t fit him. Th’ machral way f’r Higgins to ride a horse is to set well aft an hang onto th’ ears. An* if th’ horse don’t run away with Higgins an’ kill him, he’s tol’ it’s not a good horse an’ he ought to sell it. “Whin he was a young man, Higgins knowed a fellow that druv four horses f’r a brewery. He hated his job. He used to come in at night an* wish his parents had made him a cooper an* Higgins pitied him, knowin’ he cuddent get out a life insurance policy, an’ his wife was scared to death all th’ time. Now that Higgins has got th’ money, he’s took th’ brewery man’s job with worse horses, an’ him barred fr’m d’hrivin* with more thin wan hand. “ Higgins Inis to sail a yacht, raymimberin’ how he despised th! Swede sailors that used to loaf in th’ saloon noar his house durin’ th’ winter ; he has to run an autymobill which isth’ same thing as dhrivin’a throlley car on a windy day without pay ; he has to play golf, whic is th* same thing as bein’ a postman without a dacint uniform ; he has to play tennis, which is another wurrud f’r batin’ the carpet; he has to go abroad, which is the same thing as bein’ an immigrant. . . . It’s a tough life. They’se no rest f’r th’ rich an’ weary. Me idee iv settin’ things straight is to have th’ rich, who wurruk because they like it, do th’ wurruk f’r th’ poor who wud rather rest.” “Why do they'do it?” asked Mr Hennessey. “ I dinnaw,” said Mr Dooley, “onless it is that th’ wan great object iv ivry man’s life is to get tired enough to sleep.”—San Francisco Argonaut.