POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10202, 1 April 1911, Page 6

POULTRY FOR EVERYBODY.

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

One of the first tilings the wouldbe poultry farmer is called upon to do is to select a suitable site for the plant. This, under the old style, was quite a momentous business. Ke was told it should be well sheltered irorn southerly, south-westerly, anu south-easterly winds; it should slope to the north, and many other requisites which the modern poultry men can afford to dispense with, under the. style of poultry culture advocated by myself. Another point is that many persons looking for a location for a poultry plant near a city are often heard to remark that the land is too expensive for fowls at say £IOO to £125 per acre. There are many poultry plants in the Dominion doing very well on land fully as valuable as this, and there is one large plant near Wellington which, has (and is) paying very well over all expenses, and which is on land valued at considerably over £l5O per acre, though this same plant could be made to give the same returns on less than one-fifth of the land occupied and at one-tenth of the expense in time, and labour. I am not By this seeking to entice the. beginner to start on this class of land, though, if he has sufficient capital, and can afford to secure four or 'five acres near enough to a city to cart his produce in and food out, the saving in freights would probably more than pay the interest on the money expended, and when in a large way would eventually buy the land even at £l5O per acre. To those, however, to whom money is an object in making a start, 40 or 50 miles is quite near enough to a large city, provided always that the plant is located anywhere near a railway or seaport (say four or five •miles), so that the cartage will not be too heavy an item in time. Many readers will probably get this word "time" on. their nerves before they get to the end of the series of articles T am engaged on, but though I sympathise .with them, I must repeat time, time, time; this is ■ the great secret, the great key to success with poultry as with everything else. I do not, however, wish the careless man to rush through and: half do a thing to save time, and then say, "Oh, Cock-o'-the-North says time is the great secret." So it is, my careless friend, but in this way: If you are doing a thing every day which takes say ten minutes of your time to do, just set your brains to work and try if you cannot devise any way by which you . can do it in five minute's, or even in five seconds, and do it not as well—but better. Some ten years ago I was doing the same as,many other poultrymen are--doing nowfeeding birds every morning at a rate that wouldjiave taken me some three to four hours... to feed (properly) say 3000 birds, and another two hours at night, but now I can, through a moderate exercise of brain, (and I believe I have some somewhere) do the same work for 3000 birds-at- an expenditure of less than one minute in time daily with the exception of one day per month, when I should probably put in three to four hours' work. The habit of thus saving time has now so grown upon me that it is almost second nature with me; as soon as I see anything to be done which is likely to cost a good deal of time, the way to lessen that time seems to suggest itself to me without effort, though at first it cost me some hours of study to evolve very simple little bhings, so simple that I often wondered why everybody had not thought of them before, myself included. One thing necessary (under the new style) in a site for a poultry plait is that it shall be level or it least on a gentle slope; another ;hat it shall be absolutely free from ioods, and that it will permit of >eing drained. The quality of the soil actually devoted to the fowls is mmaterial, though it is wise to iay«' nu acre or so of fair land for ;he purpose of growing green food or the, stock. In many districts the proximity of nountains make north as cold a [uarter as south, at certain times of lie year, and more especially in vinter. In SU ch a case as this I ihould .be inclined to look elsewhere, is under the close confinement plan if running fowls it is imperative n our end of the world that the louses should face north, so as to ;et the greatest amount of sunnine in winter-it is possible to get, nd in summer to have a fair portion f the house in shade, as the sun is hen higher. If the above points re seen to when selecting the site, fc would not matter if there were iot one single shelter tree on the

place. " Green bono is often recommended for fowls, and no doubt it is good, but where dried blood can be ob- j taincd the green bone is far dearer j in time and labour than twice its equivalent in dried blood, even if you got the bone free. If you have tried poultry and failed, just ask yourself was the fault yours or the fowls. If the former, profit by it and try again; i the latter, profit by it and change them and try again. A tip for the Masterton Egg Circle : Approach the Government with the object of having the old age pensions extended to some of the eminent old fossils in some of the fowl yards and farms through the Wairarapa, and the youngsters put under compulsory training— for eggs. It's up to J.G-.

Bad luck in hatching generally means bad management of the feeding and care of the parent birds or the eggs themselves, or perhaps some of the twopenny boxes some persons: dignify by the name of incubators, and bad luck in rearing chickens is generally better described as gross carelessness, neglect or ignorance.