OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 289, 1 May 1911, Page 3

OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

C'C'ock-o-the-North.") When oik! lias selected a really good site for a poultry plant, started with tfle very best strain of fowls from a laving point of view, which it is possible to buy, and has housed them in splendid houses, he has started right, but he has only started. To do all this and feed wrongly is to throw all labor and money away absolutely. To say that the feeding of poultry means work is not correct, for the simple reason that there is no '"most important thing" in utility poultry culture, with one exception of "The Man." That is the most important. All ochers are simply parts of a whole, and to neglect one is to partially or wholly disorganise the whole plant. Poultry farming only be compared to an expensive watch—as long as all the works are sound and in order, the watch will probably be a perfect specimen of its kind, but let one work go wrong and the watch hecomes useless to its owner, and worse, for if through neglect he fails to notice that there is something wrong the watch may cause him serious loss by making him miss an important business appointment. It may only be a triflingJ little thing which is wrong and be capable of being easily and quickly remedied, but it would be far better for the owner if the whole lot went wrong and the watch stopped, as 'he j would they be forced to notice that his watch wag Out of order and have it seen to at owe.

So with poultry. If a person has really good birds, properly fed, and has to cull out his wasters, his results will be poor financially, and if he has culled properly and fed badly, the result will be worse, or if he cull and feed properly and feed wrongly, or house improperly, the game thing occurs. Finally, if he does everything just right and starts with a flock bred anyhow and from anything with feathers on as long as it can be called pure, the results are again bad. And so on right through. Everything must be attended to, everything must be thought of, or the whole thing is far better left alone.

Of course, many will read this, smile, and go on the same old way. Well, readers need not worry about 'such persons, as they will pay heavily for the privilege of going on that way and will soon be in the ranks whose cry ascendeth for ever of "poultry will not pay; poultry will not pay." Well, no, I don't think they would on such lines as above, and, what is more, the Bank of New Zealand would soon need a lew more millions from the Government if they conducted their business 011 parallel lines. To be able to feed fowls intelligently, that is to say, to know exactly what effect any single food or combination of foods is'likely to have on the egg production of flesh forming powers of the fowls according to the object with which they are being fed.

To know this, it is necessary to know* approximately the elements contained in each food usually fed to poultry. I say, approximately, and that is what I mean, as no person could know exactly the strength of any grain, as no two samples will give the exact same analysis. Therefore, here again the poultry man must use common sense. As if a sample of wheat, say, be on the poor side, it may by the addition to the mash or dry mash of ground peas or beans, or a little more animal food, or some other food rich in the element lacking in the poor sample of wheat, be brought up to a strength sufficient to obtain the object sought in feeding the birds. Again the poultry man does not need to run about with a pair of chemist's scales weighing the various ingredients to the fraction of an dunce, as if he gets near the mark he will be more than likely to strike tlve average, for it must be remembered that very few of the birds in any pen he has will be of equal laying capacity.

(To be continued.)

JOTTINGS. When a man gets a back-hander in I the shape of a whole hatch spoiled, or rats having banquetted on his day's eggs, and sits down and swears at his luck, he had better quit. The fighter will up at once and netting will stop the rats, while the cause of the hatch is located and remedied. This is the kind of luck that brings success. One acre of good lucerne will yield as much egg-forming material as five or six ton 3 of the best wheaten bran. Some men are not worth their salt, and this is the case with many fowls. Eggs are (usually) well worth their salt—in the pot. See that they get it. Some writers say that nerve is one of the great essentials to success with poultry. If that is the case, I know a few who ought to be Rockefellers by this time, for they have nerve enough in all conscience. The man who cannot, or will not, make his head save his heels, will never make a million at poultry farming.