POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10162, 11 February 1911, Page 6

POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

(By ' 'Cock-o'-the-North.") TIIO great points about running fowls to make them pay more than a decent living, avs to save time, save labour, and save space to as great an extent as is consistent with strong, healthy, vigorous layers. The question is, How much land do I require? Of course, a lot depends 011 the extent it is intended to go in the business. A person intending to run say 300 birds and grow the nccesseary green food, have a good garden about the house, besides room for incubator, brooder, and feed house, and other necessary .buildings, would need about one acre for the poultry, another- for the above buildings, and growing of green food, and say a third for garden, orchard, etc. Under the old style 3000 birds would need for themselves alone from ten to twelve acres, and then not be on permanent grass. Going back to the question of, Will poultry pay? I think I said last week that I would endeavour to show that they would on an average egg yield of 144 eggs and an average price of Is per dozen (net). Let us take 6s as the sum needed to feed each bird, and this leaves 6s over cost of food, out of which has to be deducted a fair salary for the person attending to 'them, depreciation of plant, freight, repairs, egg crates, and incidental expenses such as -tonics for the birds, etc. I Under the system advocated by ; myself, 4500 fowls can comfortably be accommodated on one acre of ground, and if the ground be level and the plant laid out with a view to saving time and labour, one person could attend to two or more such acres as will be explained later. .Now one such acre would yield, at 6s per bird over food,-' a total of £1350, and if these birds were of a fair table breed (or <cross) they would realise fully Is 6d each, in addition to which Is 3d should be easily netted for manure. This would return another £6*2 l, or a total of £1971 for the acre, over cost of food. The acre of ground would not cost more than £550 to completely equip, and we will allow another £IOO as the price of the acre, a total of £650 to carry interest or to repay if necessary at the end of eighteen months. Now we will allow a>* salary of £ja/0 per annum to the person in charge, proprietor or otheriwse; allow say £IOO for freight and egg crates; £SO for depreciation and another £IOO for repairs arid incidental expenses. Add to this'2s. 6d per bird as the cost of raising them to a laying age. . This means £563 more, and raises ' the whole expenditure to £lll3. We will assume that the person starting was called upon when his pullets had finished their first year's laying to repay the whole of the money the plant cort him to put down, with 5 pav cert, added. This would..mean an ional say £650, with 5 per >ent aJ.v od, or £6BB. When this sum was repaid it would mean that after ja yiti-y the whole cost of the plant, \"ith irt<vest, a good salary" to hi 't for eighteen mnoths, and VI c\- • enses incidental to th utility poultry culture, he wt.-i: I have remaining £l7O. Revd'jt's Will remember that T hare taken pn of any margin on the sale ,f cm;cu'ds and reject pullets, or the manure obtained from these," or feathers, and also, I may state that the items Is 6d each for the birds when done laying and Is 3d- for manure are (in the hands of a capable person) capable of being very considerably increased, while in the hands of a careless or incapable person it is as likely as not that a very severe loss would result. Now," under tlie old style, to rim 4500 birds would require_at least 18 ' acres or more, and would need fully four, persons to attend to them. This means that the. outlay carrying interest or demauding payment, would be instantly swelled by over £200(), not taking into 'consideration the netting and posts required to divide and subdivide the land into runs, and also gates, hinges, etc. The most prolific, source of lOS 3 when selling the birds for table is that the average man never thinks '.of the need of selling them till he is actually called upon .to sell them. He then has to ship thern to some auctioneer or . poulterer, in some town or city, who gets what he can, or gives Avhat he pleases, with the usual result that the poultry man comes out on'the wrong side of the ledger. | There are scores of hotels, restaurants, hospitals, and other institutions which, if they could be assured of a steady supply of really good birds for "table, and guaranteed eggs, would pay prices which would raise both the cockerels and

hens co a fair price, and also considerably raise the average price of the eggs for the year, in addition to saving the poultry man's time in seeking markets and very often when he has found it, finding himself eomi pelled to sell at a loss, or hold on to the birds at a greater loss. RANDOM POINTS. Heavy breeds, such as Wyandottes, Plymouth Rocks, and Orpingtons are said to be sluggish and not such good layers as Leghorns, etc., but this, is the owner's fault-, as if the birds are selected out of a. proven laying, strain they niay be forced to ' be as .active as the latter breed, and qtiite equal to them as layers, and far superior as profitable birds. Poultry men have been fairly well fleeced by vendors of incubators and brooders. More power to them. When the New Zealand poultryman learns to'use his brains a little more, incubators will come down with a run, and brooders will not pay to stock for salo.

A few of those cross-gtained. farmers' who are so prone to kick poor, humble "biddy" but of the way as useless, would .be wiser and richer men if they gave the same biddy a little mora care and kept the" kicking for themselves.

Help yourself, and God will hejp you, is a splendid motto for poultrymen . - The man who goes in for utility poultry and wants nursing, Ji ad better enter some good hospital. That is the best place for .him.

. Many workers with a bare, ugly back yard would do better to make it pav their rent and possibly a little more,' with the aid of a few good fowls, than to sit down and cry about hard times.