POULTRY NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 19, 23 January 1903, Page 4

POULTRY NOTES.

[By Wyandotte.] [ltems of interest will be thankfully received from poultry-raisers. Please address to " Wye \dotte," News office.] The poultry industry is even yet looked upon by many as beneath consideration, but nevertheless the production of eggs and market poultry has taken considerable strides during the past year. This, no doubt, is mainly due to the persistent efforts of Mr D. D. Byde, the Government poultry expert, and the fact that what has been done in poultry-raising at the Government experimental stations has proved singularly sat isfactory. One has only to look to America, France, Denmark, and other countries to find ample 1 demonstration of success. In fact, it is well-known that the poultry and egg experts of America especially form the largest item of that country's trade. Still, at the same time, the industry has not nourished to the extent that was expected, but this is accounted for by the high price of feed. All classes of fowl feed have, during the last year, risen to a level seldom heard of in New Zealand, and consequently the industry received a comparative set back. Whether the high prices have come to stay remains to be seen, but it is hardly likely that such will be the case.

To one interested in the industry it is a matter for surprise that this district is lagging behind in the matter of a poultry company. Since the formation of the Patea Co operative Poultry Company—the first of the kind formed in the colony —quite a number of others have sprang up at different parts of the coast and in other parts of the c .lony. Why should not the best be made out of poultry-rais-ing in New Plymouth, which can only be done by the combination of raisers. New Plymouth has better facilities than any town on the coast—the climate is suitable, the settlement of the small farmers is close, and proximity to a port and freezing works, makes the position second to none- What is required is combination of the raisers and someone who is possessed of the necessary knowledge and energy to take the initiative There c»a bs no doubt as to success if the business is tackled in the proper manner, and in a year or two New Plymouth could, if the raisers wished, be the centre of an industry, the potentialities of which are hardly as yet dreamt of. Dried blood (says a Canadian Agricultural Department Bulletin) is a most concentrated animal food ; it should be fed in the mash, in the proportion of one pound of blood to sixteen ponnds of meal. At the chicken-hatching and rearing stations conducted by this Department last year the confined chickens were fed on dried blood in their mashes' until they were two months old, and made rapid development. If employed in this way as an animal food for laying hen=, it will supply the necessary protein for eggproduction.

There is a tendency on the part of many poultry-keepers to revert, to a certain extent, to the old-fashioned method of all " grain " rations. Now all who have had experience will'admit that a feed of mash daily gives better egg returns than au all grain diet, however varied ; the only things these " all-grain " specialists claim it better fertility. That may be bj in some cases, bat considerable experience in the feeding of mashes leads us to believe there is more in the ingredients used and the manner in which the mash is fed, than is generally imagined, and where eggs prove persistently infertile it is the fault of the feeder rather than the mash. - The incubator aud broader have now become alraost indispensable adjuncts of the poultry farmer. The incubator is looked upon by many as involving too much care and attention. But if extensive rearing is to be done there is no doubt that hen-rearing is noc in it. The demand for turkeys has always been ahead of, the supply. To be sura, the market is frequently overloaded with thin, ekirmy turkeys, but well fatted ones are always saleable at a good price. Whenever a neighbour who does'nt believe in the value of pure-bred poultry proposes to exchange his eggs from scrub hens for some of your pure-breds " just to get a change of blood " ask him if he would exchange a Jersey calf for one from a " pennyroyal ' cow on even terms, and if not, why not. Hens, for the two years of their lives, pay more for their keeping than any other live stock that is kept on the farm for the Bame length of time.

Hens can be yarded safely if given plenty of green food. Cows are not the only live stock that do well on soiling. . Ton can soil hens just as well as cows. When hens have a warm place in which to sleep and a scratching room where they San protected from the wind, they have all that is needed in the way of housing. Proper feed does the rest. Keep the poultry, as well as all other living things on the farm, on good terms with you by keeping on good terms with them. There is but little money in hens that are always kept hungry, but there is also a difference in well-fed and over-fed hens. A Maeterton poultrykeeper. during the last year, obtained some 3500 eggs from 20 fowls. According to the market price of eggs he cleared about 8s on each fowl.