PROFIT FROM POULTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 39, 15 February 1929, Page 17

PROFIT FROM POULTRY.

HOW TO AUGMENT IT.

USEFUL SIDELINES

Naturally I rpreive numerous letters from readers complaining: about the small profit in the poultry industry during the last season, and the hoplessness of the future. It is somewhat discouraging for me to repeatedly advise haw things can be rectified, and yet find that no combined move is made. If the amount of money that is spent, or is likely to be spent, in gaining information that we already know were utilised for propaganda purposes to educate the public to the feeding value of a fresh egg and recipes for cooking it, then it is only reasonable to suppose that the local consumption would increase by at least 30 per cent, and possibly 100 per cent. This would be soundest line to go on, but there does not seem much prospect of really loyal co-operation amongst poultry-keepers. So, failing this, or while we are waiting for an improvement in the direction, it seems to me that some poultry-keepers will have to endeavour to grow two crops off the one piece of land, each crop helping the other. It i 3 a fact that at the present time a very small proportion indeed of the poultry keepers realise, or turn to full advantage, their poultry manure. Xaturally, I cannot think out every direction in which this may be utilised to the best advantage, because it depends on the situation, how far you are from market, and what is readily saleable in your nearest town, but I can offer a few general suggestions, and before doing so it might be advisable for you all to recognise that the poultry manure from each single hen, if properly conserved, is worth at the lowest estimate, three shillings per annum, in many cases it would be much more if used to the best advantage in growing certain crops. On the Dairy Farm. I could take readers to at least one dairy farm within a few miles of Auckland which has had its carrying capacity vastly improved due solely to hen and duck manure, but the man kept the manure under cover till he was ready to spread it. I know of another instance of a hard-headed business man, who has little if any sentiment, and certainly not for fowls, who kept between two and three hundred hens, the chief object of which was to manure a young orchard which he had planted, and although the land was decidedly poor ,the trees showed more vigorous growth than others in the neighbourhood, which were manured with expensive commercial fertilisers. To my knowledge the orchard was sold at ita full value, perhaps even somewhat above it, on the appearance and growth of the trees, but the buyer discontinued the fovls, therefore the trees lacked the manure, and in two or three years the orchard, or rather the trees, had quite a different appearance, and had gone back considerably. Admitted, the improvement of a dairy farm or a commercial orchard takes time, and would apply to the larger poultry keeper, still the smaller man who wants only a few pounds per annum can increase the profit from his birds. There is no clash between poultry and citrus fruits. I keep about ten hens, and in the run is one poorman orange tree, one navel orange and one lemon. They are quite young trees, were planted while the birds were in the run, and they never interfered with the trees, though they probably do keep down pests to some extent. The trees have very vigorous growth, owing to absorbing the manure. Naturally, if one planted even citrus trees, the green foliage might appeal to birds which were starved for want of green stuff, but that is one's own fault. Passion Fruit and Ducks. Another good combination is passion fruit and ducks. Passion fruit should be grown on three wires, th« wires stretched to posts, and the rows of passion fruit, say, about 6ft apart, eo that there would be ample room for the wheelbarrow or a hand-truck between the rows. Passion fruit ie a harbour for snails, but there would be no trouble in this direction if, say, 100 to 150 ducks were run to the acre of passion fruit. The vines would afford shade, and shelter from wind for the ducks, and the ducks would repay this by keeping down pests and manuring the vines, which are greedy feeders when once established. The ducke run in this number per acre would keep in check weedy growths. This is one of the best instances of two crops off the one piece of land, neither of which interferes with the other, but each helps the other. Where quick returns are required, ere has to remember that the pouli irruiure cannot be utilised to greater advantage than in feeding cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, etc.; in fact, any plant where leaf is required. Poultry manure has often been described by the agricultural chemist ae containing' everything that is required for plant life. My own analysing shows that this is not quite true. Poultry manure invariably lacks potash; therefore it is a better growing agent than fruit producing. To further explain my meaning: If you manure strawberry plants with poultry manor* without adding potash you would h»v» fine* healthy-looking

plants with large dark leaves, but they might not fruit to perfection, whereas if the potasfc were added this fault would be remedied, although it is probable that the plants would fruit heavily the second year if no further poultry manure were given. The same would, apply to tomato plants, if poultry manure were given in the early stages of their growth, they would be inclined to go to wood; in other words, too much leaf and etalk at the expense of fruit. On the other hand, when the fruit is set in abundance, and the leaf growth thereby checked, the application of poultry manure would be of advantage, encouraging the making of leaf, and so prolonging the life of the plant. These are just suggestions to some of my correspondents who have written, but as I have previously pointed out on many occasions, the remedy for the depression lies in the poultrymen's own hands if they would pull together, but I sometimes get very tired waiting for that event.