POULTRY INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18294, 10 January 1923, Page 10

POULTRY INDUSTRY.

NEW YEAR OPERATIONS.

BETTER WORK ON THE FARM 2? s.H.s. With the New Year about to dawn we feel we should make good resolutions. How many of us have done so in the past when we were younger and how few of the resolutions have been kept? We have made serious attempts to live better, to be more useful in this life of ours, and to help those who need our assistance, but as the year gets older our determination grows weaker and we, to a very great extent, forget what ws decided to do in the New Year or else- wo have tired in our resolutions. While we look to ideate when we are young and enthusiastic and expect great things to follow our efforts as the result of good resolutions it is not asking too much for all to still continue to make resolutions, oven if they are of a different nature. We can still determine to help each other In various ways such as co-operative effort in the marketing of our products. We can still help the other fellow by advice freely given in the way he should hatch and rear his flocks of fowls and ducks. But what we should consider most is the better work of our own farm and the production of better strains and better flocks of birds. This may seen selfish, but the poultry business is made up of units in the form of separate poultry farmers and farms, and if each separate poultry keeper will make resolution that benefits his own farm and the working of same it is a move inthe right direction and an improvement in the industry generally will be the result. It certainly does benefit the industry of all those interested in the production of eggs and poultry will do their best to produce a better class of products than in the past. There are many who will say we are producing the best class of goods, and we cannot improve on our present system. This attitude is a wrong one to take up because there is always room for improvement. ' We cannot stand still, either we go forward or backward in our methods; there is always room for the -progressive man or woman on the poultry farm and if his methods are so up-to-date that no improvement is "necessary then his farm should be open for inspection and approval of all other poultry farmers.

Improving the Birds.

On farms that keep only mongrel lowgrade fowls and ducks, I could urge a New Year resolution on this behalf and in the form of a determination to get rid of such, birds and start with a few really good ones. It is no use playing at keeping poultry, it is no playing game, it is a business and a business that needs good methods. When a fanner desires a reliable horse to do good work he secures one that ia suitable for the class of work to be done. When he requires a farm implement or machine he makes up his mind, if a progressive farmer, to get the best make possible. When he requires cows to give a high percentage of butterfat ha breeds or buys from the best milking strains and so on. It is just the same with poultry, and to secure the best results I would urge the prospective poultry keeper to start with a few of the best birds, from the best established strains that he is able to afford. Start the New Year with good resolutions and good foundation stock. The" resolution will also suit both "prospective poultry keeper,'poultry farmer, or poultry breeder. There are three classes in the poultry business. The poultry keeper is the one who keeps poultry, may -be only a few birds or a flock of 50 to a 100 or 200, he is purely a poultry keeper and nothing' else, unless fie uses his small flock for specialist breeding of stud birds; the poultry farmer is the one who keeps large flocks of foWls and ducks to make a livelihood out of production of eggs'and poultry and hatches and rears a sufficient number of young stock each vear to replenish those which have been culled out or sold" at the end of their term of usefulness, the poultry farmer is a poultry farmer pure and simple, the same as the sheep farmer,. the dairy farmer, or the wheat farmer; all other lines he takes up are side lines, and poultry is the roam stay. To-day there are numbers <3f poultry fanners all over New Zealand who keep from eight hundred up to two and three thousand birds.

Specialist in Poultry Breeding, I The third class which I discribe as I poultry breeders should read specialist poultry - breeder, because this class ct poultry keeper is different from the other two, although all three classes must to * certain extent be breeders of poultry. A breeder of poultry will mate up his birds place the eggs laid after selection in the incubators or under hens, he will watch and care for the birds hatched and rear them under the best possible conditions, ihe will do this year in and year out but" Ihe is not a specialist breeder" The latter 1 is a man who has a strain of his own and i by systematic testing and breeding he is in i the position, of supplying birds of' both . sexes from the same strain, that can be ' mated up with safety and that will pro--1 dace birds of equal laying blood to their ancestors used in the foundation of the . strain. : A specialist poultry breeder must keep records and know the pedigree of his Dirds for several generations and must not bring in doubtful birds to use for mating to his established strains of layers. ,:* A resolution can be made by the beginner 1 to join ■ either of the three classes above mentioned. He can quite easily become a poultry keeper and have a few ' fowls and. ducks for his own use or a hundred or two to bring in a few shillings extra each week and provide all the fresh eggs and poultry for his own home. While caring for the few he may take such a liking for the poultry keeping business that he will attempt, to be a poultry farmer and keep his thousands.He may also by watching his individual birds so concentrate his mind on them that in a few years he can see possibilities of founding a strain- of • either fowls or ducks in the breed he fancies and develop into a specialist breeder' of pedigree stock. Good resolutions lead us on and it is only by trying to do our best in any of life's callings that we find out where and how we can be most useful. A. useful life although at times strenuous, provides the best tonic possible for one and we should see to it that the New Year develops our desire to make it a success.