POULTRY NOTES.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLII, Issue 1808, 5 May 1921, Page 9

POULTRY NOTES.

(By "The Cacklcr.") To be sure that the " scratch " work of the hens and pullets is not too laborious, see that tho scratching material does not become matted. Fork it up occasionally. You cannot sell to the best advantage unless you advertise. Someone $a wanting to buy what you have to sell, and the best means of getting together is to advertise.

Gluten meal (so much used in America) is maize minus its starch. It con-tnins all the husk, all the gluten layer, and all the germ, consequently it shows a better albuminoid and fat content than does whole maize.

Keep the roosts clean constantly, above and below. Then you may hope to render the lives of your fowls comfortable. It entails some labour to do this effectually, we are aware; but continued vigilance in«this regard will pay well for the trouble.

Now that the cold and longer nights are on, more care is required to see that the birds go to their roosts with full crops. They will require it all before morning, and if left too long with empty crops the egg yield is sure to drop. By the way, it is not everybody who is getting eggs now: now when eggs wholesale are ii/- per dozen! Those who are getting eggs are thoso who are doing the right things by their birds.

A person who signs himself D. D. Meiklejohn, writing to "Poultry" on the subject of "Green Food for Poultry," says:—"Vegetable matter contains an excess of potassium over sodium. The excess of potassium is made by being balanced with sodium from the body. This sodium is afterwards excreted, and a loss occurs in the numeral metabolism of the body. Therefore, to obtain the full benefit from the use of green foods they should always be accompanied by very small doses of sodium in the form of common salt. This at once corrects' any liability to wastage of the numeral reserves of tho body."

An amateur (Mr A. J. Green) won the light breeds (single tost), three birds in each entry, at the Parafield (South Australia) Egg-laying Competition with three White Leghorns of his own breeding. His best bird laid 23tf eggs. Nothing wonderful seems to have been done in either of the tests at this competition, which ended on March 31st, and began on April Ist last year. In the six-bird test in light breeds the best score was 1,121 eggs.

On Line Breeding.—Professor E. Davenport makes the following statement regarding line breeding:—"The chief danger in lino breeding is that the breeder will select by pedigree, abandoning real individual /selection. A line-bred pedigrep is valuable or dangerous in exaet proportion as the individuals have been kept up to stan-

dard. It will not replace selection, but, on tho contrary, calls for the most discriminating care within the line. If the breeder selects by paper, and not in the yards, and a few generations of inferior stock creep in, then line breeding will consign the whole bunch to tho limbo quicker and more certainly than will any other known system of breeding—a fate that has overtaken more than one line."

Great preparations are being made •in Holland for the World's Poultry Conference, to be held at The Haguo in .September next, and it is expected that Queen Wilhelmina will open tho proceedings. Mr Edward Brown points out that although England will make a worthy display in the International Exhibition, she will be badly represented in the educational section, and an appeal is being made to secure grants, so that the United Kingdom may bo worthily represented by an educational display, the cost of which it is estimated should not exceed £I,OOO.

In respect to the subject of Utility v. Fancy Points, an Old Country writer says:—"lf some breeders have earned unenviable notoriety in respect to the large proportion of small eggs produced by their stock, it is gratifying io know that others are working with tho express purpose of defeatiiig this menace. To what extent the question is bound up with that of breed" characters remains to be seen; but it is significant that somo breeders of Whito AVyandottes are testing the effect of a cross with selected stock from exhibition strains. If a judicious blend should have happy results in the utility line, we should expect to see better Wyandotte types as well, and we think there is more hope for commercial producers in this direction than in tho methods of some advanced breeders, who would ignore breed characters and devote their attention solely to getting more eggs."

The age at which pullets begin to lay depends to some extent upon the feeding and care they get throughoxit the growing period. Laying maturity is hastened by good feeding and retarded by poor feeding. So that the age at ■which they begin to lay is not in itself a criterion of laying ability. Early laying is a proof that the pullet is of good breeding and has had good feeding. Good feeding alone will not make the pullet lay early. A X>ullet that lays at six months of ago or less has been well fed and well bred. A pullet that lays at seven months of ago or more is not necessarily a poor layer, because her maturity niay have been retarded by changing her quarters or by poor feeding. A well bred pullet, that is, one of good laying capacity, may not begin to lay till seven, eight, or nine months unless she has had the feeding to make her proper development.

An Old Countrj r advocate of the Minorca says:—"The Minorca, judged either from a utility or exhibition point of view, is a large money-earner, and poultry keepers of to-day are all would' be money-earners. As a utility fowi we find that if wc judge the Minorca's laying powers rightly, that is by weight of eggs, it stands out prominently first

as a layer. The Minorca is no exception to the rule of strain, and there are good and bad layers, as there are in other breeds; but secure a good laying strain, well feed and well house the fowl, and you will be delighted with the large quantity of fine eggs (not marbles) you will get, winter and summer alike. The Minorca, which is certainly the largest of the non-sitting breeds, is not to be despised as a table bird, having very whito flesh. Tho malo will greatly improve the farm flock of barndoor fowls as layers, and in many cases also in size. From an exhibition point of view,-the Minorca supplies every fad and want, and is certainly a most handsome and strik-ing-looking fowl, and is greatly admired by the general public."