POULTRY NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 21 January 1913, Page 7

POULTRY NOTES.

(By "Utilitarian.") The conference of egg circle delegates, which wa.s held last The. r«<d :iy iit the Tom) Hall, Lowe.: - iiutt , was. numerically speak in g t a decided advance on the previous one, throes weeks back. From an economic point of view, also, an advance ivas made in the poultry industry, and though not a great deal was, or could lum-. then been achieved, the next, low weeks should mark some substantial progress. A .sub-committee has been sot up to go into further details, whic.li will be submitted to the various circles interested, at- an early date. Members of circles can, in the meantime ro-.t a.ss-ured that, the Wellington agent has re-established the good work lie h"is so well lu'gun, and as he now tests all the eggs with a fifty candle-power electric light i th? quality of the eggs leaving him must, of necessity, bo of absolutely the best and command very shortly the rerv highest price in the market, and one of the original objects ot the icrcle movements, namely, to induce the consuming public to have nothing but circle eggs, will be a pc-sitivo fact.

A prominent leading breeder in the Wellington province and others advocate that the circles establish their own shop in order to supply customers direct. This though in the opinion of sonu\ though . not nil, 'would entail some extra expense in the handling of the-eggs, the extra price, Vetailed, should more than cover the cost cf wholesale marketing. After all. any co-operative movement of producers is to come into closer touch with th? consumer and to eliminate the middleman. Again, if the circles had their own shops it is not unreasonable to suppose that more care would be taken to keep the eggs under sanitary and fresh conditions. At present the common procedure is to place the eggs, dirty or otherwise, in a shop window, exposed to the hot sun and dust, and some of them will be lying about amongst all sorts of other produce Mich its onions. Butter is kept under excellent conditions, why not eggs P Because the poultry-keepers, not being yet sufficiently organised, do net and cannot insist on their products being sold to the best advantage. There is also i the matter of ta,!>le 'poultry, which 1 the shops could advantageously deal in. This is a line -which requires great deal of improvement.. If the circles started off with a substantial ! capital, a plant where birds could be 1 fattened off, as they were collected ( from the suppliers, would be a great I gain to both consumer and producer. Loyalty to King and country is not wanting in the T)ominion, Ifilt loyalty to each other in our own industrial concerns is of equal importance. Membervt>f circles require more mental stamiriia' and not he dismayed when little' troubles occur., but stick tight to ideals—be loyal alwavs.

keepers owning crossbred fowls frequently tnke miifli persuasion before -they enn be induced . trace the advantages of pure f.vto-ek. Thoy will argue 'that the o'c-sbrcd is hardier than the pure ; in far t, t!'.' more mongrelised "the bird is the better in their eves. There is a den] in wlvit they say. A highly bred .cpc-ci-ino-ii. like a thoroughbred li.-nr.se, doe.? not stand rough treatment sr>. well, but this is the point: What are tli? results obtained from the two classes? The crossbred may lay well, but the trouble is to reproduce equally good stock therefrom; -whereas, with the purebred,s, if mated scientifically, a good percentage of stock can be depended on. to take their place year in and year out. Even with the purebred. only some chickens will be as ffocd as their mothers, a. few perhaps | better, and some, again, worse. How nuicli more risky must it be to annually reproduce stock without any judicious selection or mating? . The latter method is but a lottery in ponltrykeoping. If there was nn advantage in purebreeding. why do all the leading breeders only keep purebrerls, or why is it that laying competitions will only admit pure stock? Because these authorities luive been through the mill of bitter experience, and know. I