OVERSEAS NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 16, 18 July 1936, Page 25

OVERSEAS NEWS

Miss J. Wilkins, who trained in poultry-farming at Massey Agricultural College, has settled in England, and her remarks following visits to some of the larger poultry farms at Home are interesting. She writes: "I have been, to several farms, and they don't compare too favourably with New Zealand ones. They all look so dull, all with wire-netting pens in a field with no windbreaks, and water usually has to be carried so/far. In some cases there 'seems to be very little grass. Another thing about the big farms is that they go in for either egg production or table birds. They'

all seem to have crossbreds, the most popular being Rhode Island Reds with White Leghorns, and they look simply horrid. The reason for this is that people will not buy a white egg, though I think that the tinted egg from this cross is a horrid colour, just like a Leghorn egg gone wrong. At present chickens and ducks are fetching Is 2d per pound, and everywhere you go you see poultry in the shops, and everyone has it at least once a week." The point Miss Wilkins mentions of the tinted egg should interest those who wish to increase the returns for our export eggs, though from past results the difference in wholesale rates of white and tinted eggs has not been very great.

Sir Edward Brown writes that arrangements . for the sixth world's Poultry Congress1 are well in hand. These congresses are held every three years, and this one is being held" in Germany at Leipzig from July 24 to August 2. A special feature' of the congress this year will be an international poultry show, and' it is expected .that many thousands 'of delegates will be present. A :■" strong endeavour is .being made to hold the 1939 congress in the United States, but an official invitation must come from the Government concerned, a rule enforced to.ensure that the congress will receive the full support of the country concerned. As yet none "of the congresses have been held there, and should the United States decide to maker the offer it. is certain that the next 'congress will bei an important one. The World's Poultry Scien-'ie Association,, the organising body behind these congresses, is a powerful and important body largely fostered by Sir Edward Brown, ; who y was knighted following the London congress of 1929. The only members of this association in New Zealand, as listed in the last publication,'are Messrs. F. C. Brown (late Chief Poultry Instructor of the Department, of. . Agriculture), J. K. Kissling (Massey College), T.- H. Evans (Manurewa), and M: J. B. Merrett, one of this country but now of England. Several attempts have been made to send a representative from New Zealand to these congresses, but no official delegate has ever been appointed, though on several, occasions visiting poultrymen have acted as delegates.