OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 299, 21 January 1911, Page 6

OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

(By " Cock-o'-the-Xorth"). The great cry among poultry writers is, ''Don't start willlout previous experience." Advice of this kind is all very well in its way. but what these writers ■■ utterly fail to tell you is who in tile - Dominion has a plant which is worthy of s study or who is in a position to say,!* "Well, here I have a plant which was!' started with (say) £4111), and it is now , yielding mo over, all cost so much." I " llave travelled over the whole Dominionj' and have visited every poultry!' plant, of note in the Dominion whieh ex-lj isted previous to two years ago, and I am compelled to say that when I left, 1 ' these plants i (lid so not with any feeling' that I should like to have such a plant,' Imt rather that there was room for a I tremendous improvement and also ii aj good many cases where a so-called up-to-j. date plant had heen put down the waste' of money was simply appalling, when it! came to be considered that the world could have been far more elliciently done! at fully 25 per cent, less cost, and in j many cases at 75 per cent. less. The! trouble with these plants is that they have been laid by the advice of so-called experts, and it never seems to strike' these experts in any way that there is! something far more important in the lay- j ing out of a poultry plant than to see how much money can be spent on laying it out. A case in point: Xot very long ago [ was taken to see a poultry house which contained IUO square feet" on the floor and had been built on the advice of a gentleman who some,time since was at the head of the Dominion's poultry all'airs. The cost of the house was £l*7 liOs and was a very elaborate affair, but there was an utter absence of anything! which added to the utility of the'house.' Xow a poultry house Bft square larger' ( on the lloor aiul complete with all mo-| dern labor-saving machinery, etc., for cleaning, feeding, watering, "etc., can be built for an outside cost of £4 10s (for material only), and when such a house is finished it is far daintier-looking than the other, while it increases a single person's ability to run from 10,000 fowls upwards single-handed, instead of 100 to

litUH) as heretofore. My advice to any of | my readers, therefore, who is intending to start, is not so much to try and get , experience from others but to get hold of some good poultry work and study it. I will be perhaps excused if I recommend a book entitled, "Utility Poultry-farming for Australasia," 500 .pages, by myself. It may be obtained from Whiteombe and Tombs, Wellington, at 5s Gd, post paid. I not advise this from any interested motives, as I sold the rights of the book,' and I gain nothing if a million copies I were sold. The Dominion press was goodl enough to say that it is the best thing I of its kind which has been produced in I this ml of the world, and on that jnXg-' ment J. can recommend it honestly to' anyone interested in utility poultry. I i The next step for a beginner is to place himself under the guidance of someone' able to guide him sensibly, and to adopt ;Some system of feeding, earing for, and selecting his fowls. Such a system will cost probably a few guineas, but this will ibe saved before accommodation for GO birds has been erected, and will be further saved three or four times over before the said 00 birds have laid for twelve months. Tile first thing when about to start is, of course, to select a site. This, according to the text of the usual poultry man, must be well sheltered on the south or cold side, and perhaps, under their style of poultry culture, this is really necessary, but under that advised by myself it does not matter two straws if this site does not contain a two-foot bush as .shelter. There are other points of importance, however, to lie considered, viz., the intended site should be as nearly level as possible, although a very gentle slope to the north is a great advantage. Again, it should not be more than live or six miles from a railway station, and less if possible, as this means a great loss of time in carting to and from the plant. The ground should be high enough to avoid being flooded and to permit of being well drained. The site being selected, the next sten is an extremely important one; in fact, it is sometimes vital, viz., the selection of the best breed for profit. This is a question of such great importance that 1 shall probably devote a couple of articles to it alone, starting next week. JOTTIXGS. Look after the growing chicks. Every one lost through neglect may mean a loss of 10s or 15s to the owner. Do not keep a hen after she has completed one year's full laying, but sell her and replace her with a pullet, unless you want her to breed from. Don't forget the pullet for laying and the hen for breeding. Perhaps the following may be of use to some larmcrs who own a few venerable biddies whose meat is fairly tough. Take the fowl 24 hours before killing and give her a tablespoonful of really good vinegar. Starve for the next 24 hours, then kill and roast in the ordinary way, and there is little or no difference between it and a chicken fur tenderness. Don't forget the dustbath. Fairly dry soil with two large donblehandsful of sulphur ami carbolic powder, in the proportion of live of sulphur to one of carj bnlk\ will save an enormous lot of worry, j work, and, not least—eggs.