THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

Bruce Herald, Volume LV, Issue 63, 18 August 1919, Page 3

THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

THE HATCHING SEASON,, (From Sun Poultry Notes.) Hutching operations should now be in full swing. Upon the chickens hatched this month and during September depends much'of the success or failure that is to attend next year's work. It is the chickens hatched in these two months that should be laying most of the eggs next autumn and winter, the very time when prices are likely to be higher than at any other period of the year. Here and there one fmds a flock of October-hatched birds in which good development has been secured, and which comes on to lay sufficiently early in the autumn to give the birds a chance to become winter layers, but it is safe to say that the greater part of the pullets hatched in October under ordinary poultry-farming conditions do not lay many eggs before July. The way to secure eggs during the months of high prices is to hatch chickens early, and ensure the best -possible development. The factor of inheritance is, probably, of less importance than proper development. This is the weak spot in presentday poultry culture. The average breeder of poultry is relying too much upon strain, and too little on the development that ensures profitable birds. It is of greater importance to attend to the development obtained in the young Stock, than to any so-called strain or line of blood.

The time has arrived when it is necessary to emphasise this more than over. We want a revolution of thought and practice in poultry culture. There are too many failures, not because poultry farming is an unsound proposition commercially, but because of the unsound ideas that have crept.into it. To repeat, profitable poultry farming is possible independently of strain, but not independently of good development. •CAUSES OF LACK OF DEVELOPMENT. There is more than one cause for lack of development, but the principal ones are : (a) unsound stock, (b) running chickens in too large numbers, (c) improper and unskilful feeding. Good •breeding counts for little if the chickens are not well grown. Too intensive methods of rearing, and running too many in one flock, arc calculated to retard growth. In what is known as 'cold brooding,' the greatest success is obtained by running chickens in, very small lots. In any case, however, greater skill and more constant attention are necessary to ensure success. THE RATION. A properly balanced ration has been published several times in these notes, and if farmers would follow the advice as closely as is practicable—using scales to determine the measure of the different feeds, and particularly so with blood, meat meals,, salt, etc—they would not be likely to fall into such errors as cost many the whole of last hatching sca'son.

To put the matter clearly, and to assist poultry farmers to balance their rations as nearly as possible to the varying analytical values of different foodstuffs, it may bo pointed out that meat or blood meals vary in their proteid contents, some showing 40 per cent., others 50, and 60* per cent., and, in the case of''pure- dried blood, as much as 84 per cent.. In feeding breeding stock it is better to err on the side of giving too, little nitrogenous matter than too "much. Skill in feeding is especially nei cessary with breeding stock —not only in regard to the materials but also the quantities. Both stinting and overfeeding should be avoided, and by overfeeding is meant allowing food to lie about the yards from one meal to anI other. When once the morning feed is I seen to have been left, a gradual reduction of the amount given should be affected at both meals until a keenness for food is seen to have been acquired; thereafter feed more carefully. One of the surest signs- of comingtrouble is when themiorning food is seen to be left. . Skilful feeding in regard to quantities'is even of greater importance than a correctly balanced ration, notwithstanding that the last is one of the matters which poultry keopers regard with most concern. Of the most faulty methods of feeding is where Avet mash is fed in the morning, and feed hoppers are retained in the yards. Whatever may be I the merits or demerits of dry-mash I feeding for layers, the above holds i good. Nor is dry mash, suitable for feeding to chickens ; in fact, it is one of the causes of failure to secure maximum development, and it should at any rate be banished from the nursery. ,

THE JUMPING TABLE.

LORD RAYLEIGH'S S'BAuNCE, : ' In his presidential address to the Society of Psychical Research in London, Lord Raleigh said he had no definite conclusions to announce. He had'attended seances at which a Mrs Joneken was the medium, and the results were disappointing, although it was not c&sy to explain all that happmcil. Coat-tails were pulled, paper-cutters flew about, chairs were shaken and so forth. What struck him most was the floating about of lights. A table at which they had been sitting gradually tipped over untill the circular top nearly touched the floor, and then roso again to the normal position. Mrs Joneken was apparently standing quite clear of them. The medium was a small woman without any muscular development, and the table was heavy. They, had been for a long time in semi-darkness. Ho (Lord Rayleigh) repudiated the-idea of halucination ; the incidents were always unexpected. After some, supposed spiritwriting, he arranged pencils and paper inside a large glass retort, with the neck hermetically sealed, and placed it inside a wooden box. This was set on a table during several seances, but there was no writing inside the retort. Ho found on recent investigation that the opportunity had remained neglected for 45 years.—(Laughter). Seldom or never did Mrs Jencken make an intelligent remark. Her interest seemed to be limited to the spirits and her baby. No pains should be spared to establish the reality of telepathy. Telepathy with the dead would present comparatively little difficulty if it were admitted with regard to the living. Sir Oliver Lodge, referring to the vanishing hand, said that Mr Gilbert Murray was determined not to let go of it. The hand drew him up, and he got on a chair. 'Then the hand vanished in his grasp, leaving nothing. Evidence showed that sentences could be read inside a closed book. There was no reason for rejecting a fact because they had not a theory to account for it.

BULLET'S CUKIOUS ANTICS.

A REMARKABLE MISHAP. Mr Arthur H. Lucas, of the teaching staff of the Sydney Grammar School, who, during the absence of the headmaster at the war, was acting-head of the school, met with an extraordinary accident recently, says the Sydney Sun. He was shot, and the antics of the bullet were remarkable. Mr Lucas was walking on to the Mortuary Station at Regent Street, to attend a funeral, when he heard the faint report of a fire-arm. Almost simultaneously he felt a slight concussion in the head, and became somewhat dazed, though he recovered quickly. When he reached the cemetery, and took off his hat, he discovered three bullet holes in it. He then for the first time noticed that the lower lid of his' right eye was very sore. Mr Lucas asked a friend' to examine his eye, and when this man pulled down the lid ho found embedded in the corner a small bullet used in pea-rifles. He extracted it, although the lead had not punctured the membrane. Mr Lucas said that the rifle must have been aimed high, for the bullet •came from above, entered the crown of the hat, then emerged at the right side, and deflected again to the rim. It passed through this, struck him on the exterior *of the lower eyelid, and, glancing upwards, glided along the eye ball. The force of the bullet was almost completely spent by the time it struck the eye, for Mr Lucas stated that he does not recollect even feeling it. !

COURTING- TROUBLE.

It was a red-letter day for Pat Finncgan. For the first time, lie was a member f the jury. Dressed in his best suit, he was about to depart for the court house, wlien his wife asked him where he was going. " "Shurc, an' it's to coort Oi'm going," replied Pat. The next day the same thing happened./ However, on the third morning things came to a climax. Mrs Finncgan again asked the question. "Shine, it's to coort Oi'm going," said Pat. Mrs Finnegan got the rolling pin- and got in Pat's way* "Now, Pat," she cried, "take off them -good clothes, yer not going to coort. If there's any cooi'tin' to be done, shure, ye'll do it here, an' do it with me!"