THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13101, 28 April 1908, Page 5

THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

TO THE IDITOB OF "THK rBESS."

Sir,—ln your Saturday's issue I note with pleasure that at last some one ha 3 taken ,up tho cudgels on behalf of the above much abused, much criticised industry. It is most amusing, but certainly not instructive, to read tho outpourings of tho unfortunate failures «ho cannot keep the bitterness of disappointment to themselves, fondly imagining, I suppose, that because they cannot make poultry pay, everybody efco must bo similarly placed. I would advise them belore starting poultry raising on a commercial scale to learn their trade. You cannot expect a bricklayer to do a tailor's work, or a butcher that of a t-muli. They even go 60 far as to deride the Government and its Chief Poultry Expert. Mr D. D. Hyde, because he has not shown them how to make it pay. unaware, perhaps, that that gentleman cannot, as a Government servant, defend himself nor explain to them in print that the much coveted £-3000 per annum spent for the benefit, of tho industry generally, is not expected to return a i»:g interest. Nor am I going to defend him, although 1 fear he occupies an unenviable position to-day in keeping up and superintending an out-of-date and profitless system, but that is not altogether his fault, although he might have taken a lesson long ago from the strides made in egg production and discarded tho useless breeds he distributes to farmers and others, to say nothing of the export trade, which I fear can never compete with countries so much nearer tho Homo markets.

I followed poultry raising for twelve years, and in the beginning mndo any number of mistakes. I bred for .show, llesh. eggs and flesh combined, and lastly lor eggs alone, thru 1 promise you I got back twofold all I lost. I studied tho trade from beginning to end. and could write volumes on the subject, and would start again to-mor-row if a suitable opportunity offered. (Now, readers, don't- rush mc with obsolete runs and a flock of Minorcas, Games, or Cochin Chinas, for I do not want your pets). Tako a word ct advices from mc instead, wring the nocks of every bird you own, if they ore not real layers, bred trom known laying strains. Keep nothing but first-class Silver Wyandot tes (laying strain ondy), Black Orpingtons (same), and last, but certainly the best, most consistent and easily kept, the American White Leghorn, or as they are. known, tho Wyckoff Leghorn. for i assuro you sheep are not in it with them. Take your paper any week and look up tiie returns from the Blenheim laying competition (not Lincoln College; they kept properly there; too many young students take a hand in the game, ami poultry don't appeal to that cult) and. see- tho eggs 'produced by any of the six leading pens, and work out what you would mako if you had 500 of tho samo strain-. Do not take the whole show as a guide, for tliey havo to accommodate scrubbers as well as good ones there; the resxdt wi 1 '! surprise you. Then when you are quite cer- | tain there is money in it, do -as I j said at starting—learn your trade. Get aa many journals as you can, and. you ■will bo surprised- at tho extent of things you don't know about poultry. I think it an awfully hold! stand, for any anan to take to rim down this | industry in face of tho enormous pro- ' fits mad© in America from it. The poultry industry in that great country exosods every other by just thirty'million dollars per annum, and there food is dearer and climiatic conditions not so good an in New Zealand. IF you doubt this statement, write to Washington and you can get the official return proving it. I agree with Mr Waby that, taken as a side-lino, it cannot bo made profitable to any great extent, but when a man first starts it is best to consider it as such; if a man has a good wife and plenty of energy himself, shecan look after tfafe incubators.during the day and- ho can (as I did for three years) build runs and houses, etc., after lie finishes his -work for the day. By 1 such a method ho is learning his trade in the best school. Then when his experience anxl pocket warrants it, give his whole time to it. There are only one or perhaps two, other occupations that would warrant poultry keeping as a side-line to business—the orchardost and the farmer—but I must say I am very shy of tho latter, for my experience* is that there is enough waste on most farms to make a decern, competence for a genuine poultry man —they axe content if on Sunday mornings the boys and girls tako a basket and collect all and sundry eggs they can find in the- fences (some hare chickens in them). That is roostJy tho fanner's idea of poultry koppmg. This letter is written mostly witn tho object of giving heart to these men who are in doubt end are losing fadth, in the industry through the weakness of others and in defence of poultryraising generally. Do not give up, stick to your hens, and : success must attend yon, and, above all, never, loi tho sake of common sense, run down the best, most interesting, and most payable" industry in this little country, vis., egg-fanning.—Yours, etc., WYCKOFF.