POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10168, 18 February 1911, Page 7

POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

(By "Cock-o'-the-Norti.")

All that I wrote about last week iis not only possible, but should be the ordinary outcome of an ordinarily good flock bred from strong, vigorous parents. Where, however, by any means which he knows 'to. be good the poultry man breeds say 20 birds more in every 100 (that is pullets) so as to permit of rigid culling the results quoted last week are capable of enormous expansion, as the average could very easily be raised even in very large flocks from 144 to fully 160 eggs, and more. Of course this means only sixteen eggs more per bird, and at the price quoted last week as an average means Is 4d per bird more in the year. This does not seem much at first sight, but when readers of the Age begin to understand the style of poultry culture I advocate, they will understand that this.ls 4<l per bird more means an addition- to the rjvenu of one acre of £3OO per annum. Again, the question' which* troubes the anxious souls who are trembling on. the verge of a plunge with their little all into poultry farming is, Will eggs keep up in prices' The remedy is in your own'hands; I fancy I hear some say, "Nonsense! How can I, with only some 60 or, 1100 birds, affect the market price of eggs?" Readers, it is not more than a , century ago since the poof humble farmer had to go into the store (or his wife) and fearfully ask what the good kind storekeeper would, give him for his butter; after guaranteeing it well made and scrupulously clean he was very often offered the munificent price of 4d or 5d per lb : and the. storekeeper, very often re- I. gretting his generosity, added that I it was only on condition they "(took i it out." But now the'farmer (humble no longer) says,. "Well, here's the butter; you can have it at such a price—or leave it." He tells the Government what it-should do and how it should be done, and very of- ' ten it is done, too. Why this tremendous change ? It is spelt in twelve letters, "combination;" The first was attained by means of co-* operative butter and cheese factories with the resulting development of a home market, and the second was attained by means of the Farmers' Unions throughout the Dominion. Is there any lesson in this for the poultrymen and women of this Dominion? If not, the best thing the Age can do is to wind up its poultry column at once; for any body of people with so powerful and glaring "a lesson before them, and who are not able to learn it, should leave the industry alone. The lesson is combination, and once that lesson is earned the poultry men of this Dominion will be able to say, "Well, our eggs are; here, guaranteed fresh; the price is so and so, and, if you want them we are at your service; if not we'll send them somewhere else," instead of putting them up at auction, or standing in front of a grocer's counter with (figuratively) your hat in your hand, and then asking witft fear and trembling what he will give you for your 'eggs. If you wanted to buy a dozen of eggs three minutes after you had sold them the grocer would not ask you what you won'J give him—he would simply tell you the price, andi you could take them or leave them. As far as we have gone,. Egg Circles are the best form of combination we know of; but there seems to be a lot of miscon* ceptions in regard to these egg circles. I believe you have one in the Wairarapa, though up where I am, at the end of Taranaki, we have not got that far yet. Every producer of eggs or poultry within rasonable dis ( - tan.ee of any town should be a member of one of these circles, and if. this were done it would not be very long before the question of whether the price of eggs would keep up. or riot would not worry the poultry world. There are various learned poultry scribes who have enormous [unltry plants—in their back yards, who prophesy all manner of evils 1 fiorn these egg circles; but these same people would do exactly the same if the Messiah returned to earth tb.b 3 gni t».<-- Millenium. They should not.be blamed but pitied. They know nothing of the question from their own experience, and only know wthat the other fellow who knows as much as they do has told them. Take-my advice, Wairarapa readers, and simply ignore them. Combine, comI bine, combine, and you have mas- ' tered the problem of the price of I eggs. -

v RANDOM POINTS

That "cleanliness is next to godliness" is especially true in regard to fowls. A well fed fowl kept in a. house infested with vermin or infested with body lice will lay very few (if any) eggs, while another bird not nearly so well fed but kept clean will lay moderately well. One of the best insecticides is "Killgerm," made, I believe, in Dunedin. I will endeavour to obtain the address for the benefit of my readers. Some splendid cui'es for diseases are from time to time published by various writers, and for fanciers are really good. I have one, however, ■ , for utility worth them, viz.,. a good club and a hot fire. The utility lias no time to turn veterinary surgeon. 'When killing a fowl 'suspected of serious disease never kill in such a may as to make the blood flow, as there' is a danger of the other fowls pecking, at the blood and , thus spreading the disease (if contagious.) The hardest task I evei' knew a poultry man to undertake . was to raise red mite, and ,eggs—for profit. Moral, don't try iit. ,