EGG-LAYING COMPETITIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13489, 16 May 1907, Page 7

EGG-LAYING COMPETITIONS

UTILITY CLUB'S RESULTS. [BT TELECfiAPH.—OWN" COr.r.ESrOSDEST.J i OiiBiSTCHtKCH, Wednesday. THE' comparatively poor, yield of 'eggs' in the Utility ' Poultry V Club's 7: second :■:; egg-laying !competition!'' concluded a few day* ago at I the Agricultural College. Lincoln, has been a subject of comment among poultryi beepers. The Press placed the results beside those attained at Blenheim and at Bock* dale, N.S.W., to the manifest disadvantage of the local effort. To-day a Press representative had a chat : on -the' subject with Mr.»W. -; Lowrie, the : director of th© college. "The chief reason for the ; birds ; doing so much worse than during the previous year," said Mr. Lowrie. " is that there was a much larger proportion '; of the light breed* in the pens. .These are unsuitable for the heavy ; clay land at Lincoln, especially during very wet winters, such as we have had =in the last two years. The winter laying was very low indeed; at the same time under no circumstances can one competition be compared with another unless the birds are of the same breeds and in -the" same proportion, and, the competitions are held in , the same district. Where you'have in one competition a pen yielding only 338 eggs, and another 1254, as in the last competition, the element of luck in the entries bulks very largely. From the point of view of the management, in the first competition the yield per pen varied from 1283 to 657, but I do not believe that at Lincoln we could ever approach the results attained in Australia.: because oar land is too wet and heavy in the winter. It is a grave mistake to-; put one competition against another, and set up a spirit of excessive ; emulation. A competition will fulfil ■'•* its '•■■'■ function in my opinion without putting up records, its object being to : discover the best laying breeds and strains. It is clear that . whether it is managed expensively ■- or cheaply. - whether the average vield of eggs is very high or relatively low, the best* birds are still at the top," vThe balance-sheet of the late competition showed an expenditure of £307, including wages ■ £156. "■" and receipts ,: £263," leaving . a deficit of £44. Mr. Lowrie pointed out that even this result showed that there was: a living to be made by poultry-keeping. ."; Deducting the loss of £44 5s 4d from the salary paid to the attendant, nearly £111 remained, and this represented what a private; poultrykeeping farmer might have earned with the 600- birds, namely,, about .3s,Bd • a bird. A much larger number of fowls could be mailaged with the Same amount of labour. The next competition begins on Sunday, and 48 pens have been entered. -