GRAIN FOR POULTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20607, 4 July 1930, Page 5

GRAIN FOR POULTRY.

WHEAT PRODUCTION. The quest 1011 o! gram food for poultry in tlio North Island of Now Zealand is of great importance on account of tlie extraordinarily high prices which prevail. It is commonly supposed that the North Island, or the Auckland Province at any rate, is unsuitable lor grain-grow-ing, but this is a mistake. At one time wheat was grown in considerable quantities in the Waikato, and in the Northern Peninsula, and it might well be grown again if the present values are maintained. With regard to grain for milling purposes, Auckland is handicapped to some extent by the dominance of grazing and grass farming, and the absence ol threshing mills and the implements needed in grain-growing. It must bo remembered, however, that grain need not necessarily bo thicshed for poultry-feeding, a.s hens, at any late, can pick it- out of the ear.

All that is necessary iu the way of machinery besides the ordinary implements of Cultivation, is the mower or the scythe. If the poultry farmer has a fairsized area of good land he. can, by manuring, obtain a yield of £>o or 60, or even more, bushels per acre, and it is not beyond the power of the average man and hjs family to harvest, even with the scythe, .10 or oven 20 acres, which should gi'vo him all the grain he needs for a goodsized flock of birds. With the mower larger areas could be dealt with, and the sheaves slacked or stored in a Dutch barn. When wheat went down to 2s 9d and 3s per bushel, it went, out of cultivation in the northern parts of New Zealand. Now, with it ruling at over 8s a bushel there should be c\crv inducement to grow it once more in suitable localities. A few farmers with the right kind of land might he induced to go in once more lor all Iho modern implements of wheatgrowing on modern lines, just to supply the local markets for poultry and pigfeeding.