POULTRY NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12001, 25 June 1902, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES.

This week we publish .a lengthy report of the Poultry Show hold' last week. To poultry owners the report and prize list will prove very , interesting reading. Now is the time to consider what changes in the stock are necessary. As a rule stock should be changed more frequently than is the general rule. The prize list and the description of varieties exhibited slionld ,be a good help to those looking out for frefth varieties or fresh blood, and early application should be made by intending purchasers. An article in Poultry states that in England a most curious freak of nature has come to light in the shape of a hen that was found upon goodi authority to lay two eggs per day, and an examination was ma-tie, when it was found that the hen had two separate oviducts, from each of which an egg was produced. s 1

Milk is a valuable food for them, and if the food is cooked with the skim-milk profitable results will be sure to follow. If more milk were fed to poultry, instead of to the hogs, the farm income would be larger. Even sour milk, scalded until it 'becomes curd, is valuable.

" A Constant Subscriber," Maunganui, Chat-ham Island, writes 011 May 20 as follows: —"Some time back you V yave in your Poultry Notes some information as to the best way of rearing young turkeys. Will you kindly repeat, the same in your next issue, and oblige:"—We do not (as a rule like to repeat that which we have already published. It is not pleasant to •attentive readers; but if our correspondent will give us the date on which the information appeared in our columns we will comply with his wish. However, as we have published scores of notes on turkeys we are unable to guess which one is referred to without something more definite than is given above. The Eketahuna branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union (writes our Wairarapa correspondent), recently set up a committee for the purpose of moving in the direction of establishing a poultry association to encouraging poultry-raising as an indtistry. The committee has since decided that it would l>e inadvisable to start a poultry association as proposed by the union, as & was expected that better success would be achieved by an association outside of the union. It is generally agreed that poultrybreeding can be made very profitable as either an adjunct to the farm or dairy or as a sole means of livelihood. There is no doubt that it is capable of immense expansion if only those interested would recognise the fact and develop into a large and valuable export trade. In-breeding of Fowls: Te Kaka, Waitara, writes as follows:—As regards "in-breeding" with poultry I 'think R. W. Hammond and "Poultry," Hohoura, are very likely both wrong. I have tried both plans, and find very little difference if proper feeding and attendance is followed. I think " Poultry" is hardly justified in declaring that in-breed-ing is the fault of their degeneracy, as according to the Mosaic account the world began on that principle, "and there were giants in these days," while most certainly life was longer then, as some lived to over nine hundred yearsl don't mean fowls. But why should not man be exampled as well as Captain Cook's pigs and wild birds. Some years ago there was a flock of sheep in New South Wales that beat all others for wool, afid they were bred in-and-in for years. I cannot say if they are in existence yet. They were brought to their excellence by culling. ' Tf people would do that with their fowls I think they would do better. _ Others think that everything is to be gained by Crossing, and yet those very people run human beings down to the very lowest for doing the same thing, "sic est vita." As you do all you can to help others I don't see why others should not help you, and I shall be always willing to try with mv of your correspondents that whitewash is of your correspondents that whitewash is of very little use in a henhouse. T never lap my weather-boards, but nail them on flat so that in dry weather they open and let a free current of air through, but when wet weather comes they close, and keep the birds warm and dry. Inside 1 paint the sides and perches with kerosene oil, and I have not an insect on my birds.