POULTRY

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume I, Issue 1, 12 August 1932, Page 10

POULTRY

POULTRY CONGRESS. WORLD CONFERENCE IN 3 ROME. i INDUSTRY’S DEBT TO EUROPE. The fiifth World Congress of Poultryihen will be held next year in Rome, and the sixth, at a date yet to be fixed, in the United States. In order to show what the new world owes to the old where p0u1t.,.-, are concerned, Professor M. A. Jull, who. is in charge of the Poultry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture, has contributed the following notes to a Wisconsin journal. The poultry industry of the United States owes a great deal to poultry science of the Old World. Our industry, with an annual farm valuation of over one billion dollars and ranking sixth in importance among the various agricultural industries, had its beginning in the original habitat of the wild fowl, South and Central India, the Himalayan terrain, Assam, Burma, Ceylon, Sumatra, and Java. Scientific inquiry has disclosed the fact that there were four species of wild fowl and that our domestic chicken of to-day is probably descended from one of them. That the sport of cock fighting exercised a tremendous influence not only in the domestication of the wild fowl but also in its subsequent distribution is amply demonstrated by the importance attached to the pastime by many human races. As eggs and poultry meat became more economically important as articles of diet, more and more attention was paid to the improvement of the existing races of poultry.

The Earliest Debt. Among the earliest of the old world scientific contributions in the development of the poultry industry were the methods of incubating eggs adopted by the Egyptians and Chinese. The immense Egyptian hatching ovens, used for many hundreds of years, resulted from investigations concerning temperature, moisture, and ventilation conditions under which eggs would hatch best. So with the Chinese incubators, which -are mud-plastered, strawcovered, and muslin-covered barrels, heat being supplied by burning charcoal or by placing the barrel-like incubators in piles of decomposing manure. We have leanied much about modern methods of incubation from the Egyptians and Chinese.

A Spanish Discovery. * A discovery of great importance in modern poultry practice was made in Spain many years ago and consisted of providing the laying flock with artificial light for a part of the long winter nights to stimulate winter egg production. In many parts of the United States the artificial lighting of laying houses is common practice. ■ There are many breeds and varieties of poultry in the United States and many of them owe their origin to the improved breeds originating in China, Central Europe, and England, where for many years carefully-pi a lined breeding experiments were undertaken to improve the fleshing qualities of the fowl common to the particular country. “In England, in particular, scientific work has been under way for some time to ascertain the mode of the inheritance of egg production. In France and Germany, as well as in Italy, many years ago it was found from experimental work that geese fed certain specially prepared diets developed enormous livers which wore made into- that popular food known as pate cle foie grass, something to tickle the palate of the epicurean. ‘During recent years there has been greatly increased activity m research work in all countries of the old world. This increased activity has resulted very largely from the triennial World’s Poultry Congresses which are held in different countries and' which provide for a- review of poultry activities in all countries.

Modern Research. A very great deal of research work of a new kind! has been started in different European countries during the last decade, but in this brief discussion it would be impossible to discuss the work except in a general way. In Germany, Italy, and France, for instance, a great deal of research work of a fundamental character has been under way for some time concerning the various poultry diseases. Poultry breeding problems have been developed particularly ip Holland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Russia, and Germany. Research work concerning fundamental problems in poultry nutrition have been developed very materially in recent years in England, Scotland, and Ireland as well as in Germany and Japan. In such countries as Denmark, Belgium, Holland, and Ireland a great deal of work has been done along the lines of improving conditions for the marketing of eggs, especially on the London market, which is the largest poultry-consuming market in the world. Altogether, poultry science in the old world is. accomplishing a very great deal for the poultry industry of different countries.