POULTRY NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 63, 14 March 1903, Page 4

POULTRY NOTES.

[By Wyandotte ]

Items of interest will be thankfully received from poultry-raisers. f.ilrtress to " Wyandotte," Ntws office., NOTES. Good fowls are always in demand. Birds don't like strong wind —protect them. Table birds should be plump rather than large. If you buy fine fowls you must treat them properly if you wiih to keep them fine.

It is not always tlie man wil; i'm: largest flock that makes tin* ucsl nn;:s»-y. An American authority says " i.cc-.-.s with poultry is easy if brains are niixjii in the work." It in not often that a wise man make; the same mistake, twice. We know of nothing tint cu'.s;s ukuo failures (says an exchange) than the attempt to overdo things, and getting mere breeds and larger iiucks than wo can handle. A little charcoal in the chicke i's water helps to keep it sweet. A feaspoonful of wood ashes to each quart has the same effect. The best way to rid the chickens of head lice is to wipe the mother over against the grain of the feathers with a sponge that has been dipped in kerosene and squeezed day. Then when the chickens run under the hen the perfume makes the lice " skedadle." The selection of the variety is a difficult point in starting. Make up your mind first just what you intend doing, then ycu will have little trouble in selecting the breed that will give you the greatest satisfaction. , Bear well in mind that you must crawl before you walk and walk before you run. Successful poultry plants are never built up in a day. I Economy in poultry culture (says au exchange) is a very important factor, and if faithfully adhered to will materially assist you to get yourbalance on the right aide of the ledger. I Ihere's no weakness like hereditary weakness, no vigor like hereditary vigor. If you breed from puuy, pampered weaklings you will get the former, and might as well stop right now and save your time. If, on the contrary, you use only strong, vigorous birds on both sides you will get grand ragged stock that, given proper attention, will grow like weeds, and as the saying goes " an axe won'c kill." The lack of good t-lMi-p grit is the cause of a great many poultry ailments, of which perhaps indigestion is the most prevalent. The up-ro date incubator has opened up possibilities in poultry culture that were not only undreamt of, but positively could, net exist under the "old hen" regime. Just as the reaper and binder, stripper and thresher are being adopted by all up-to-date farmers, so will artificial in cubation, in time, take the place of the natural method ; and the man who rears poultry on anything like a decent scale in years to come by the old system will be considered a back number, same as a farmer who still adheres to reaping hook and flail. • D. W. Ingersoll, in American Poultry Journal, says : —Duck eggs are very easy to incubate, but a good many incubators do not supply half enough ventilation for them ; the same ventilation that fairly supplies hen's eggs with fresh air is wholly inadequate for duck eggs. Persistent air „ ing and cooling wili go far to remedy thisI do not use moisture in my machines, but about the time the egtjs are pipping I reach in hurriedly and sweep a whitewash brush dipped in warm water over the eggs, and so delay the drying of the tough membrane that lines the shell After all have batched that will, I open ho machine door a trifle to cool and dry out slightly, but I keep the clucks in the machine twenty-four hours, and some times longer. By that Lime they are as lively as crickets, and ready to go into a heated brooder and be fed at once. ,

POULTRY RAIsISG. Mr D. D. Hyde, Government. Poultry Expert, has been lecturing in Hawke'a Bay on the poultry industry, having

spoken at Taradale and Hastings to audiences which were most appreciative if not too numerous. Mr Hyde stated that the industry was only in its infancy. He predicted a Urge increase in the business within a few years, and believed that ic would shortly rival the dairy industry. No class of stock could return such good results as poultry. The chief faults of persons in the business were allowing the fowls to roost in trees and breeding out of the proper season, which should commence in July, instead of the summer months. The fowl houses also should be kept clean and without draughts ; and perche'' should not be higher than eighteen inches from the ground. Vermin in fowl houses should be rigidly excluded. He advocated the sale of poultry and eggs at per pound weight, which would encourage attention to proper breeding. He contended that the four Government poultry farms had greatly improved (he class of stock in thj colony by supplying welK selected birds and sittings of eggs. The depots were handling poultry at the rate of 500 head daily for export, and the supply was far below the demand. Fowls should not be kept for a longer period than two years, and he favoured the use of incubators as bringing out better results than sitting hens Eggs could be stored in freezing chambers at low prices in order to be available when the market was insufficiently supplied. Cardboard sample boxes very suitable for this purpose could be obtained from the Department of Agriculture. In reply to a question Mr Hyde stated that there tfas no "best" breed of fowls, as from careful records kept it was proved that it was very rare for the same_ breed to produce the j largest number of eggs in more than one I year running.

Speaking on the same subject at Taradale Mr Hyde urged upon those present the advantages of poultry as an adjunct to other branches of farming, and referred to tho great success of the industry in America and France. In this colony the raising of poultry was rapidly becoming of vast commercial importance, and the Government were doing all they could to forward the industry. It did not appear to be sufficiently well known, however, that 'the Government Export Department took delivery of birds at the railway station, and plucked, dressed and shippel them at a nominal price per pair He referred to the fact that the birds now being senr forturd for export were of a more uniform type than previously, and de exporters teemed to have a better idea now of (he maikec requirements. «r Hyde said he was convinced that no branch of farming was more profitable Hi in poultry raising if properly conducted, and he hoped in a short time to be able to report that Hawke's Bay was making a name as an exporting district.