POULTRY SCRATCHINGS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 277, 30 June 1888, Page 6

POULTRY SCRATCHINGS.

Xump.rk 01 Cocks to Hkxs. — A larger proportion of the eggs will be fertile and produce healthy chicks where twenty hens run with a single cock than whore there are only ten. Forty -two to one arc the most T ever kepi, and that season the eggs hatched as well as 1 ever knew any. 1 have long been satisfied that the greatest bane of the tiock is often too many roosters, but 1 never realised the extent of the evil till I made it the subject of special experimentation. — O. S. Bmss, in JVor York Tribnw. Raisim- ok Gkkm;. — Jso doubt the most profitable kinds are those that grow largest. A goose is never noted for its great number of eggs, as they usually lay but one litter, unless broken up. The number raners from eight to fourteen. A goose will nearly always sit anywhere you wish, if you cover her for a few days, or until she gets accustomed to her nest. She should be <iccu= tomed to handling while sitting, so that at hatching time you may be able to look over the eggs occasionally, for if a shell should slip over another egtr it would be nearly im possible for the unborn goslings to break both shells. The food for goslings may be the Mime as that for chickens, but after they ha\ c learned to eat gra^s they care but. little for anything else, and will grow finely. A Pici;ox\n Ri;w>nin(,. — Captain Urapmeyer, of the merchant vessel Anna, sailed from Plymouth r.o Groeningen, and on leasing British waters found a pigeon, utterly exhausted, fall down on the bridge of the %essel. It was carefully fed and tended, and by the time Groeningen was sighted it had become quite domiciled on board. On landing the captain left the ship and found, to his great) surprise, that the pigeon Hew beside him wheievcr lie went, and even entered a coffee-house besido its fiiend. Nor did its gratitude cool down, fui it is still the constant companion of the captain of the Anna. Early Chickens.— "Remember it is t>e early-hatched chicks that make the fall and winter laying pullets. They must be matured before cold weather; the latter pai tof July is not too early for hatching them, they stay under the hens for the first two or three w eeks most of the time, after which the weather begins to be favour able. Lnsect Poison^. — Generally speaking largei quantities of P.iris green and London pin pie arc u»cd than ate necessary to the distinction of iu.^ect p st-- A teaspoouful ot the powder (if the genuine article) to three gallons hi water, says a hoiticultural anthoiit}', wagieal plenty, notvvithstand ing high authonty recommends a heaping tablespoonfnl to ten quarts of water. And when u&ed a-< a powder, one part of the powder to lifty pirts of either plaster (gypsum) or flour is sufficient. Some recommend one to 100 or even 200 pait> of the article we mix it with. The niuiu pointsare to have the powder well and thoroughly mixed with the material it is used in, and then to apply it evenly and uniformly ovei the Uei>, plants, or \inc-.