POULTRY NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 39, 13 February 1903, Page 4

POULTRY NOTES.

[Br Wyandotte]

[ltems of interest will bo thankfully rewired from poultry-raisers. Please address to " Wyandotte," News office.]

Mr D. Hyde, the Government poultry expert, has lately published some interesting information showing the possibilities that lie before the industry he has been appointed to promote. The figures showing the magnitude of the international poultry trade are astounding. Germany's annual share of the trade that is, its imports and exports, amounts to L 7.467,291, Great Britain's to L 7,063,461, Austria's to L 7,062,500, France's to L 5 701770, Russia's to L 3,777,666, and Italy's to L 1,901,354. The figures, it must be remembered, do not include the home consumption, which probably far exceeds in every case the total of the exports. In the United States, poultry raising is absolutely the largest of the rural industries, the annual output amounting to close upon 160,000,000, while the cotton crop, according to the .latest returns, is worth only L 53,000,000, and the wheat crop only L 49,000,000. In 1899 England imported from foreign countries 1,940 000,000 eggs, and there is no reason to suppose that her requirements have since decreased. This being the case, the exports from this colony last year look rather less than the proverbial drop in the bucket. They Included 52,500 eggs, 26 266 fowls, 11 ; 307 ducks, 433 geese, and 79 turkeys. ' The local consumption, however, runs into much larger figures, touching in the case of eggs close upon two hundred millions. But Mr Hyde's business is to encourage the export trade, and with this in view, he supplies some very useful suggestions for its development. He insists, above all things, upon attention to details. The poultry farmer who simply buys his stock and turns it loose to take care of itself as best it can. is sure to be disappointed.' He will be lucky if he gets eggs enough for the use of his own household ; he will certainly get none for export. A piece of poor land, even land that is too poor for anything else, will do for a poultry farm, but the housing and feeding must be good, though it need not be extravagant. ]