POULTRY RAISING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, 1 February 1909, Page 2

POULTRY RAISING.

BOOM FOR EXPANSION. REFERENCE has been made recently to the fact that jeprcs?ntativcs of Br;** '.it'll firms in A:i!.:-:a!ia havo rai' .-J v.c pric* for poultry for export to Londc.i from- 6d to 6^d a lb. This season the latter price will be paid for all ohickens and ducklings, approved at Melbourne, for export. The price is for live weight so that chickens and ducklings, weighing 51b. on their legs, will he worth Si 5d a pair in Melbourne or Sydney. It. in worth noting that, although poultry-raising has been so much improved during the last 12 or 15 years, and has expmded so enormo ls-ly all over the world, the demand for poultry products has not been overtaken. lt grows faster than production. Poultry and eitgs ,\re I eeoming more and more part of thi- daily diet of the people in neaily all countries. Cne of the roi sons why pou'try and eggs have steadily risen in price, altnougn market supplies have increased, is because consumption is in.-rea6;ng. In an article published in tha Melbourne "Argus" on December 14 it was shown that the number of fowls sold in city auction rooms r(-v <■'<■•*•?>.• frpm 254,000 head i-*'ISC4 '.<* 307X00 i,--.d in 1907. Prices did *••"■( t'iil vi;h in* ■ii-.T'-.-isi!!-* mini ''t-i-rf. 1-fit- ■*-'..•:•-!. •J. Vi.-k-". ifpr.r'.s7.*\v<v! 'ti.-.-. , lr. '<:"*.;■ '.hi' lir-t wo--;: in I..--ml*.*- in I'iioh year, fowls \v?re 5.*-. 6d to 6s bd a pair in 1904, 6s to 7s in 1805, 5s to 7c in 1906, Se to 6s

n 1907, and 6s to 8b in 1908,- Eggs vero 9d to lOd a dozen in 1904, 9d to 0d in 1905, 9d to lid in 74906, lQd o Is in 1907, and ls 3d in 1908. • • • • • .' Increasing consumption is a jfcature of j he poultry business, both in (Jreat Britain and tho United States. The „ United Kingdom has imported during j he last five or six years PfSjs wotih ■ jver £6,000,000 and poultry worth , nearly £1,000,000 per annum£ Ove£-70 f>er oent. of the eggs were from «<{g: { sia, Denmark, and Germany, and Bo t per cent, of tbe poultry *Jras'?from for- ( oign countries. So thero is ipi^ct-xcally - nn unlimited market in Grfat Britain ( for all the surplus Australia -Susy tteie , after providing for her o*jt Require- ( ments. V , But the most astonishin K sfigui**s In ( respect to the modern devefepmelit of • the poultry industry are thoSe" relating , to the United States. In^ho "Year Book" of the United Stags, Depart- 1 ment of Agriculture, whicfr has just been issued, Mr James Wilson, the secretary, whose reports arc accepted everywhere as reliable, referringjto poultry, says the industry has advanced at s'ich a rapid rate that no arithmetic can keep pace with it. In 1907.. the. value of th*- wheat crop of tho United States (625,000,000 bushels, worth-.£100,000,---000) was exceeded by the value ofpoultiv and poultry products at £i 20,000,000) produced on the farms. With this enormous home production, the average' price of eggs on the far™ rase from 11.5 cents a dozeri iii 1899 to 12.37 in 1903, 17.2 in 19«, 18.7 in 1905, 17 in 1906, and 13T2 cents m 1907 Dressed poultry -»ld in New York for 10.78 cents, a lb., wholesale, in 1899. It advanced to 12,.S7 "cents in 1903, 12.57 cents in 1904,713.36 cents in 190 S. 13.2 cents in 1906,. and ;tp 14.9 rents in 1907.. -