POULTRY-RAISING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9137, 13 July 1908, Page 4

POULTRY-RAISING.

The ninth annual Show of the Mas terton Poultry, Pigeon and Canary Association, has come and gone, and while the Association is to be heartily commended on the jxcellence of ( the exhibition, the general public of the town cannot be similarly applauded for its patronage. The attendance year by year is , infinitesimal in com- , parison to the value of the Show and the industry, and, as a member of the Association complained on Saturday, it is a remarkable fact that a travelling variety or dramaticshow which charged fabulous prices for admission, and took a considerable sum of money out of the town would have a "crowded house," an exhibition vyhich has for its object the pecuniary good of the district and in every way a deserving object, receives the scantiest support possible. This public characteristic is not confined to Masterton, however, as several Poultry Associations closed down last year in New Zealand. Some day,when amusement gives way a little more to utility in the Dominion, no doubt we shall see, as they see in America, that Poultry Shows' have a very considerable value. The most important feature m connection with the present Show was an ad-, dress on poultry raising, given by Mr F. E. A. Gordon, author of a work entitled "Utility Poultry Farming," and a gentleman of wide experience in poultry matters. He fairly astonished local breeders by his intimate knowledge of the subject, and his lecture was practical to a degree. He showed clearly that poultry raising on proper lines paid anyone and every one, and he put hope into the hearts of many present who confessed to him that they found their disbursements on the barnyard exceeded their incomes, by showing such persond where serious errors had been committed by them in the treatment of their fowls. Mr Gordon said that a person could start in the verv humblest way and in a short space of time, if scientific lipes wer.i followed, that person would soon be a large poultry-raiser. He instanced the experience of an Auckland man who started in 1900 with four hens and one cockerel, an J two sittings of eggs. 'The multiplication table of this man's yard to 1905 reads: —1901, 250 bird?; 1902, 500 birds; 1903. 940 birds; 1904, 1,50) birds; 1905, 2,000 laying birds. Mr Gordon declared that Wellington paid the highest market price for eggs in the whole world, and thought that VVairarana could profit very much from that fact. There if no doubt that, the potential"! • ties of the egg-raising industry are not yet grasped by people in this Dorrinion, and in Wairarapa in particular we have not nearly the amount of interest shown in the subject that its importance warrants.