POULTRY NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 15074, 4 January 1913, Page 10

POULTRY NOTES

[By Minorca.] ! Contributions and questions for crnswerinq should be addressed to "Minorca," Poultry Editor, 'Star' Office, and received rot. later than Tuesday of each week. "Minorca" will only answer co7nmunications through this column. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "R.S."—The eggs have not been sufficiently aired, and this causes the toughness. Too much moisture will also cause the trouble. If you have had very damp weather it would have that effect in some cases. "Poultry Farmer."—l don't know of any farms for sale. Your hest plan would be to advertise, or apply to a 'arm ryent. Mr J. Smithson (Palmerston) writes me : "Dear Minorca,—ln leading your. Poultry Notes .1 was surprised to see that Mr M'Donald is not yet willing to go by the judge's decision at the last Dunedin Show, i I have been interested in Minorcas for some time, and I think that anyone who reckons that a small com!) is right should try to learn a little, more before voicing his opinion in public. In any case. I should advise Mr M'Donald to be a, little more sportsmanlike, and not to keep on complaining after beina; deseivedly beaten." Everyone who wishes to f get egg-s in winter should give the best of attention to their pullets just now. The forward pullets are the ones which will supply winter eggs if they are properly looked after. There are many who do not. give their birds soft food in the morning, but experience has shown that this gives tho best results. It is estimated that birds given one feed of soft food per day will lay 30 to 40 more eggs in the year than birds fed on hard food only. If yon reckon that up on 100 hens you will see for yourself what it means even in a small flock. One reason why soft food in the morning is most beneficial to fowls i« that the hard corn takes a certain time to soak in the gizzard, but the soft food passes into the system imI mediately, and tho fowl is nourished at

once, so that no time- is lost, and the flesh or eggs are produced with less exertion than if hard food wns given. Warm water should he to mix the soft food, but if milk, can he used instead, of water so much the better. First of all. birds must have- sufficient food given them to keep them in health and condition, and then to make eggs, and that is where many breeders make- a mistake. They try to get •eggs without giving sufficient food. A notion stems prevalent that too much food produces fatness and stops the birds laying. If you have the proper birds they j won't fatten, hut if the correct ration ic-. given they will lay. Birds want plenty of food, but it- should hj? given in the correct I way—that is, the birds must take exercise Ito procure it. In small runs this can only I ho done by burying the food in deep I I litter, or in sand or dry earth. Green ! food, grit, and fresh water should be reguj larly supplied to the birds, so thai they • can help themselves when necessary. Meat j is essential if ■ejgN are wanted in the- very i coldest weather. Babbits are splendid i for poultry. If they are boiled for t-ho | birds, and the. liquid used to mix the soft i food, they give splendid results. j Mr Cart", manager of the Government | Farm at Milton, inform;-, me that they j have raised 1.700 young birds this year. j.-.'ikl that they are t.he best they have'had! j there h;,s been a. record «ale of both cl'ss j and birds this year. All the- clucks are, i reared by the coicl brooder system, 'fhe hot air brooders have all been done awav with. Mr Can- says the circular hovers have proved very .succes.sf'e.l hi rearing ducklings, as they take to them readily.' With the ordinary hover it., is hard to'persuade the duckling to return to them. Changes are likely to be mad? in the Government farms. Mr Carr. I understand, will he transferred to the North Island. He has been nine years in Milton, and win be missed, by roanv friends. He has Hen a good, sport, and is well liked in the district. A new 'manager for the farm has not been appointed vet. There will probably be some trouble to find a suitable one.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TVPE. [By RrsxrcuLus.] Not feather, but figirre. form, and fixtures should be the Past objects at which ; the breeder should aim. By "figure" we mean deportment or carriage, grading from 'the upright to the horizontal f by "form" the shape of the body, and by '''fixtures" the comb, beak, eyes, lobes, wattles, legs, and feet. Thete'are the real thing's that make type. We do not mean to sav that feather w of no importance ; far from it, it may be of great importance. But what we mean to t-ay, and what we mean to adhere to, is that it must take the fourth place, and not the first, Tt must follow after, and r.ot come before, type. Any departure from this solid rule "must in the end. and sometime.-, more speedily than is imagined, lead to the deterioration of tiie bieed, and consequently to its falling of! in popular favor. One frequently hears the accusation brought against the show p«n that it has done more harm than good. This i>- a. sweeping assertion to make, and as thoughtless as i': is sweeping. Nevertheless, like all such statenents it contains its grain of truth. Some breeds, as everyone knows, have been absolutely ruined by the show pen. and we want to find cut where the fault really lies. It. is not to be found in the show pen itself, which has done a vast amount of good in many ways, both directly and indirectly, but it lies'in thos-? associated with it. —Laziness of Judges.— Tn the first place it lies with the judges. There are thiee grievous failings to which judges may be liable. One of these is laziness. It is very tempting just to look out for one or two ;;oints simply because they are the most conspicuous, though bv no means the mast important, and to give the whole weight of the testimony upon these. We have known prizes given to birds upon this frail evidence, .when their figure, form, and fixtures have, to an experienced eye, denoted their close alliance with breeds other than that which they .were supposed to represent. —lgnorance of Judges.— Then there is ignorance. One almost shudders to think of the number of breeds whhh one man ' may be called upon to judge at a show; and the thought has often forced itself upon us that men have accepted the heavy responsibility of judging breeds which they have never seen before. Now, to pass anything like a fair judgment upon a bird it is absolutely necessary to have had several years of close acquaintance with the breed. It is not amatter of cleverness—it is a matter of acquaintance. We have known the case of two clever fanciers visiting a yard at different times, and both picking out the same bird as the one worthiest of remark; yet. though it was a smart and conspicuous bird, " cross " was so clearly stamped upon its figure, form, and fixtures that those who had had a long and close acquaintance with the breed could only have expressed their opinion of its merits with a shrug of the shoulders and a smile upon the face. But tha bird had actually taken prizes at fairly good shows. That is the sort of thing that happens through ignorance. A little while ago we heard a keen and amusing -fancier- relate how a friend of his had manufactured a prizs bird by mating

together two birds, neither of which belonged to the breed which the offspring sc successfully represented. We can quittfbs. iieve it; such a lack of acquaintance is sometimes displayed by the judges. —Dishonesty of Judges.— Then, again, there is downright, unblushing dishonesty. We do not care to speak at any length upon this unsavory subject, for we do not believe lhat ft exists to any considerable extent. Yet, of course, there are the 6toriss about distingumhing grain being noticed by the judges in the show pen, and we" have heard, directly, from the mouth of the recipient, of a vendor of food backing up his application for custom by hinting that he was going to judge at a certain show at no distant date. Yet there is sufficient laziness and ignorance to account for most of the glaring mistakes which unfortunately do happen in connection with the show pen. —Not All the Judges' Fault.— But tho fault lies not only with the judges, it lies with the breeders' too. There is a tendency among breeders to breed down to bad judging, instead of forcing the judging up to the breed. It is a simple process. Some judge or other, whose name is well known, and who has deserved his tc put at ion. may give through laziness or ignorance, or to satisfy a mere crank, a glaringly wrong judgment, and by the force

of his reputation starts a false fashion, and .--way go the bleeders in pursuit of the false ideai. It is a Will-o'-the-Wisp, and leads to the deptniction of the breed. This is bad enough, but it is not the only thing on which a word of caution to breeders is needed. There are some, apparently, who seem to think that they can throw off ail lesnonsihility in connection with their '*xhibits by giving their poultiymen a free hand. We hr.ve heard of a similar thing in connection with political candidates and thtir agents, and we have rlways considered it a most unworthy (subterfuge. No mi eh. scapegoat cart hear such sin-.- away. Unfovtumitelv. there are some poultrymen who seen to be more proud of their cleverness in faking than in breeding. These are a real source of danger. They not only lower trw tone of the Fancy, and do inestimable damage to the value of shows, but by bringinz them into contempt in the public imagination they endanger their existence altogether. Judges should be absolutely uncompromising in this matter, and. breeders) should not wink at that of which thty themselves would be ashamed. The thing could he in a great measure checked at once by strict adherence to type. Hut there is a fault also lying at the dcor of the clubs. Clubs should, in the first place, be very careful in fixing a cor tect standard for the breeds which they represent, and then they should guard that standard very jealously. Bud judging is always in eomebodv'p favor, and, unfortunately, ifc may be to the advantage of the loudest talker among the members of the club, so things are allowed to go on which everyone knows should be stopped. Every member of a club should hear firmly in his n ind that he is responsible as an upholder of standard and a. guardian of type, and that type is far and away above all things the one thing necessary for the welfare of the breed.