ABOUT THE FOWLS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 March 1922, Page 8

ABOUT THE FOWLS.

WHAT CENSUS HAS TO TELL. HALF THE HOMES HAVE FOWL YARDS. More than half the households in New Zealand (says the Dominion) do nt)t need to trouble about the price of the breakfast egg, since they keep their own fowls. This is one of the most interesting facts revealed by the recent census. The returns show that some 145,993 New Zealand households keep poultry. Of these households, 84,534 are in counties and 61,459 are in boroughs. Poultry is a term that cover® fowls, ducks, geese, and turkeys, but the fowls form the great majority of the flocks. The actual figures are: Fowls. 3,491.567; ducks, 379,988; geese, turkeys, 73,220. Taking fowls alone, there appear 3,491,567 in 143,119 flocks, giving an average of about two dozen per flock. But 30 per cent, of the households in the enumeration have not more than 12 birds per house, and another 40 per cent, of the households have from 12 to 25 birds.

A comparison by years has its value reduced by the fact that the census is not always taken at the same period of the year. Mortality is very high in the poultry world at certain periods of the year, particulaly round the Christmas season. The census returns show that there were 3,991.099 poultry in New Zealand in 1921 and 3,465,638 in 1916, but as the 1916 census was taken in October and the 1921 census in April, the comparison does not convey much information. The 1911 census was also taken in April, and gave a total of 3,687,5.83 poultry. Auckland province has 40,102 flocks of fowls, Wellington 25,545, Canterbury 25,513, Otago 14,772, and Southland 8819. The four largest flocks be found in the Wellington province, two of them being over 3000 fowls each, and two others between 2000 and 2500. Auckland’s largest flock numbers between 1750 and 2000, and Wellington has three flocks in this group.