NOTES BY THE WAY

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22600, 4 January 1939, Page 7

NOTES BY THE WAY

about hens

More than 160,000 households in New Zealand keep poultry. Owners of more than 100 birds are compelled to register at a fee of 2s 6d annually, but there are only 13,000 registered poultry keepers in the whole of New Zealand. A big proportion of this 13.000 are obviously not commercial poultry men in the sense that it is their main undertaking, as the produce of 100 hens, or 500 for that matter, would not go far towards keeping a family. The figures are of interest when the reader recalls the outcry made some years ago in the Auckland Province about the high cost of feed ruining the commercial poultry keeper. The principal owners of poultry are those who keep 10 to 50 hens in the suburbs, where much of the feed is provided from the household scraps and garden green feed, and on the farms, from the same source and the pickings from the cereal paddocks. Possibly the most ’ payable—or at all events use-ful-section of poultry keeping in the town areas would be with a type of fowl which would provide for the table or to a small extent for the poultry market, as well as a reasonable number of eggs for the family needs and for "laying down." An experienced poultry keeper the other day compared to the writer the returns of Hocks of hens he had owned of from 10 to 500, and he was emphatic on the point that there were Hocks oi a certain size which were not profitable under almost any circumstances — that is, to cater for the egg market alone. Feed became too big an. item and prices were too low when production was at its peak. Anyhow there are not now so many hens a head of population as there were some years ago. The estimate is now less than three. The decline, however, is not so much due to dear poultry feed as to the changed habits of the people. Family holidays by motor-car and improved travelling facilities generally encourage more frequent and longer absences from home, and sometimes it is difficult to arrange for the care of the flock during these absences. This decline in numbers of the back door fowl is not singular. The causes mentioned regarding poultry can be applied to the decline in the family vegetable and fruit garden. The cost of gardening work is another factor in the decline in this case. A few years ago, when the North Island propaganda against wheat protection was at its height on account of it allegedly hampering the export of eggs to the United Kingdom, very alluring prospects of the export industry were held out —one enthusiastic North Islander claimed in the newspapers that it could be made under Government encouragement to equal the export of frozen lamb! For the II months of last year eggs exported in shell were valued at £12,306 and of lamb at £8,748,975. The egg had certainly some distance to travel to keep near the writer’s imagination. Duty free poultry feed was to bring about this hen utopia. It might be pertinent to suggest some difficulty in competing with Australian eggs in the Sjme market,; wbep.,tb£ ;; industry x'in e Commonwealth '’has the cost of shipping feed to New Zealand in reserve to work upon, in addition to the more . frequent transport and cheaper rates. But out of this seasonal cackle emerges the fact that the use of table poultry in New Zealand is very restricted. There should be scope for its extension.

THE EWE MARKET

The dullness in the ewe market is not confined to the South Island. It is affecting North Island markets just as acutely, with the difference that the nothern season commences earlier and some life might be expected in the breeding areas there a few weeks earlier than in Canterbury. A northern writer says that everybody “is waiting to see what is going to happen.” Whereas in past seasons many thousands of ewes have been sold by New Year for forward delivery, scarcely a deal has been reported this season. Two transact ions of twotooths, described as much better in type and condition than those usually seen at the ewe fairs, are reported to hj ave been sold at 30s. There is agreement amongst Hawke’s Bay farmers that they have paid too much for their ewes in recent years, probably by up to 7s 6d a head. After the fairs last season values steadily dropped back and ewes kept for four or five months with the cost of the rams thrown in have shown a loss on the purchase price. At the Stortford Lodge yards recently one extra good quality line of twotooths showing breeding topped the market at 25s 3d. If this sale can be taken as a guide it would appear that much lower levels of values are going to male this season. For the old ewe the market offers no prospects, adds the writer. Many of the six-year lines offered in the fairs last season did not come within the category of bona fide breeding ewes. Some ewes in the fairs that have looked passable in the mouth have surprised their new owners at the way that they have gone downhill soon after getting them home. Many farmers last season admitted that they lost through buying old ewes, and state that they will not venture on similar lines again; A false market, however, frequently leaves little else for some men to pick up. The grading of ewes as bona fide breeding lines is long overdue. This policy has been found to be working out very satisfactorily lin North Canterbury, but it is like 1 Hawke’s Bay not to be in the van as i far as reforms for the selling of stock is concerned. It would appear that the old ewes have had their day and the chances of working them off as still fit for breeding when they are only fit for being put down the chute are b.ecoming less probable. LAMB AND MUTTON SUPPLIES It will allay a little concern in the meat export industry to learn that the opinion of Australian meat authorities is that there will be little restriction of Australian lamb and mutton exports as a result of the announcement last week by the British Minister for Agriculture that Australia and New Zealand had been approached to regulate their exports to Britain in 1939. Details of the new British plan were not known in Australia last week, and presumably a similar position exists in New Zealand, but it is understood that the proposal is to widen the scope of the Empire Beef Council, so that this body will regulate mutton and laftib supplies, as it has done in the case of beef. The British Government envisages a greater measure of conscious planning of production affecting meat, wheat and barley producers. It is expected that ! the plans will have some effect on imports from the Dominions, but a dras- , tic curtailment is not intended. Discussing prospects after his return in October from the United Kingdom,

Mr A. C. W. Fisken, chairman of the Australian Meat Board, in a report to that body, expressed the opinion that, taking a long-range view, and provided industrial conditions in the United Kingdom remained good, the beef market in that country would continue to absorb Australian supplies in gradually increasing quantities. He saw no reason to anticipate that the policy of granting to the Dominions an expanding share of the United Kingdom market at the expense of foreign suppliers would be varied in any way. Apart from the fluctuations due to seasonal conditions, Australia had shown a steady expansion in recent years, and, unless new markets could be found. Mr Fisken expressed the opinion that some time in the future Australia'might be faced with the position that the United Kingdom authority would be unwilling to admit Australia’s total available supplies. It is the latter contingency, ot course, that concerns the industry in New Zealand, which would be in the same position as Australia. CLIMATIC VARIATIONS After one of the driest autumns ever known in Southland, the month of cember finished up with a rainfall that might make the West Coast envious. The month’s total in the Southland eastern district averaged six inches and a half, the remaining 11 mont.is being responsible for only 23J inches. The average fall last year in Canterbury in comparison with inland Southland’s 33.17 inches, was 33.55 inches. In 1937 the inland Southend fall was 38 inches and that of Canterbury 231 inches. :Vd in the 1936 year the southern fall was 40 inches. Nothing better as indicating the vagaries of the season could be taken than these figures. The southern fall as a rule is 16 inches higher than that ot Canterbury, and last year it was approximately three inches and a half less.