POULTRY NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 28, 3 January 1931, Page 10

POULTRY NOTES

CONDITIONS IN AMERICA. (By “Brooder.”) Poultry commission agents in America are evidently doing well enough to be able to think of others and the following illustrates how distress caused by unemployment is being met in the United States. Says an American journal: “A meeting of the New York Live Poultry Commission Agents Association, was held recently for the purpose of taking action in respect to the unemployment in New York City. It was decided to urge each egg merchant to consult his employees for the purpose of allotting one per cent, of the entire pay-roll, including salaries of the executives, each week for a period of three months, for the feeding of the hungry people in the district.” The poultry industry is surely in fairly strong position to be able to help those less fortunate. QUESTION OF DAMAGE. N The question as to the damage hens do to land has long been a source of controversy, says a writer, who adds that it is now definitely settled that not only do they do no harm, but are really helpful. Geese and probably ducks, we are led to believe, are an exception, as cattle dislike grass over which they have trodden. Not so with poultry, the droppings being a fruitful manure and land over which fowls have free range is bound to benefit from the liberty granted to the birds. LIGHT SUSSEX STRAIN. The Light Sussex is making rapid progress in England, more particularly because it if? a dual purpose bird, good for eggs and for splendid meat for the table. In New Zealand it_ is looked upon more or less as a bird for the fancier, but its utilitarian characteristics are being demonstrated more and more as time passes. More breeders' are giving the Light Sussex their attention. For the egg man, it might he stated that the latest egg trials in England furnish us with _ records a little surprising. One instance is where six pullets laid 1094 eggs in 48 weeks; in a single bird test the winner had 212 eggs to its credit, with only seven second grade. For table birds, the accepted average weight is: Male 91bs.. female 71bs., of nice white flesh. The Light Sussex has much to attract new admirers. ORIGIN OF RHODE ISLANDS. It is not generally known how we got the hardy Rhode Island Red. Fanciers, we are told, cannot claim any credit, as it was the product of utility farmers in the U.S.A. The breed was made bv crossing the light-feathered Red Malay with the close-feathered Buff Cochin and mating the progeny to the hrilliant-plumaged Brown Leghorn. Endowed with a good underfeather, the bird thrives in the coldest weather and for flesh and eggs few can equal it. ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY.

A correspondent of the London Times writes :—“lt is a matter of common knowledge that poultry are now being fed more cheaply than at any time since the war. The misfortunes of the grain grower have in this respect resulted in advantage to the stock feeder, and the circumstances afford an additional reason for the keeping of poultry on general farms, since the consumption of grain by a flock of wellbred and well-managed poultry should be one of the most remunerative means of disposal. Reports from some of the egg-laying trials show that hens are now being fed for less than 2d per bird each week, and many commercial poultry farmers who are in a position to buy grain and meals in bulk, are keeping well below this mark. The reduction in feeding costs does not, of course, represent a not gain to the poultry-keeper, because egg values have diminished, especially during the past summer, but there can be little doubt that cheaper feeding will have a stimulating effect upon breeding and rearing operations

during the coiiiing season, and that egg-producers will derive a substantial advantage through the lower costs of raising pullets. LOW FEEDING COST.

“It would be a mistake, however, to assume that low feeding cost is a primary factor in commercial egg-produc-tion. Better breeding, better housing and better feeding have resulted in substantial increase in average egg yield during the present century; and of these three factors feeding is the most important, because the physical process of egg-production depends fundamentally upon the supply of essential ingredients. For this reason economy in feeding must be considered first from the standpoint of efficiency and not of cheapness. To keep a hen in full lay at a cost of less than 2d a week, as many of the public egg-laying trials have done, is obviously an attractive proposition; but it is limited to those who can buy foodstuffs at bulk rates and who are conversant with the nutritional requirements of laying stock to mix their own rations in such a way as to supply all the elements for the functioning of the productive system.”