GIFT MINORCAS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17815, 14 July 1923, Page 7

GIFT MINORCAS.

AN ARISTOCRATIC LOT. (SPECIAL TO "THS PBKSB.") WELLINGTON, July 13. By the R.M.S. Athenic there arrived from England four minorcas, which will make a welcome addition to the flocks of this breed in the Dominion. These birds (two cockerels and two hens) were presented to the Mew Zealand Government by Mr Harold Marshall, of Bramshott Manor, Hampshire, a well-known breeder and exhibitor of minorcas in the Old Country. Last year Mr Marshall obtained from the Department of Agriculture copies of the iNew Zealand, utility poultry stundards, which aehn« tor the guidance of judges the characteristics or ideal birds or the ditterent breeds. He wrote expressing his appreciation of th-3 Departments forward ppney in publishing these standards, and enclosed a cheque for a suliicient number to supply one eacli to the niem tiers of the Louneii of the Poultry Club of Jreat Britain. At the same time he offered to present to the New Zealand Government a cockerel frpm his best hen, which has an egg yield record of 289. Mr Marshall's cheque was returned to him with the standards, and , ho w.»j asked to quote a price for two hens co accompany the cockerel. His | response was to present these also, but on the arrival of the crate it was found to contain two of either sex, and in a letter to the Department he explained th.ut he had added another male in case of accident. The birds were brought out free of charge by the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, and their excellent condition on arrival bore testi-; mony to the care they had received on the voyage. An inspection of the new arrivals confirms Mr Marshall's statement that the New Zealand standards are practically identical with his own. Mr F. C. Brown, chief poultry instructor of the Department of Agriculture, says that these birds represent almost the ideal tvpe of the utility minorca, being true to breed, and exhibiting to a marked, degree points, indicative of laying capacity and constitutional vigour. They are being sent to the Department's farm at Fendplton, Christchurch, where one trio will be mated, and the pure Bramshott Manor strain perpetuated. The other cockerel will be used to cross with some of the best of the Department's hens in to secure a number of breeding lines which will before long be available for the regeneration of the flocks of. the Dominion, many of which are showing of the need of , a change of blood. A revival of interest in the minorca is highly probable in the near future on account of the likelihood of an export trade in epcrs being established. Consumers, in Eniland. flemand an p<it at le?st two ounces in weight, and ' the of such is one o" the wel'-known characteristics of this bird. These aristocrat"! hnve therefor? arrived at a particularly opportune time, and it seems safe to r-rndi'-t th"t ,- t w!'l not b» lone before the Bramshott Manor strain_ will be known throughout the Dominion.