EXHIBITION VERSUS UTILITY POINTS

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 55

EXHIBITION VERSUS UTILITY POINTS

During the last twenty years a great deal has been done in showing poultry in all parts of England, and as the United Kingdom has appeared to take the lead in exhibits, yet other countries have followed on—Russia, Germany, Australia, Africa and no doubt America ranks highest next to England in success and exhibits. There is no doubt iu the least about the hundreds and thousands of pounds spent in good-bred poultry throughout the world. If poultry shows, and those who have taken an interest in showing poultry, have done nothing more, they have been the means of circulating an immense amount of money, which every reader must know is what keeps the commercial world going. And not only that, but the greatestpart of this is-what may be termed spare cash, as nineteen out of twenty who go in for show "birds do it as a pastime, or hobby, and because they are fond of it. They will often give from five to fifteen guineas, and frequently more, for show specimens, and this is what may be termed odd or pocket money, whicn would be spent in some pleasure -were it not spent in the feathered tribes. Of course, a good deal has been spent by men who partly make a business of breeding good-bred stock. Fifteen years back, in England, it was considered a bad tiling to have two poultry shows on the same date, as it was thought one robbed the other, but we have sailed right away from that stage, and if fifteen shows were held on one day every show and every class would be well filled.

Of course, people have their fancies, and some classes in the shows fill better than others, but we are often asked questions, in different parts of the world where we travel, as to whether fancy poultry or show birds pay. We can only reply that they do more than half the battle, as many people give up to lOgs for a cock bird, and never breed anything worth more than a sovereign, for the simple reason that they have mated wrongly. It is not always the best birds that breed the finest stock. There are birds that can be bought for from two to five guineas and will not themselves win at shows, and yet there are many birds that will win which are very valuable as show birds, but almost useless or breeding genuine stock. It is not so in every variety of fowls. Poultry people so often ask us which are the most profitable to keep, prize birds or birds for utility. We generally advise people never to buy prize birds, or birds at a long figure, until they have had birds and some experience, as the commoner utility birds are less in price and more profitable, laying double the eggs.per year.

Show birds should always be managed by those who know something about them. We fancy we hear some readers say this is most discouraging. No, it is not. If anyone lias a pure variety of laying hens, and they feel they want to improve them, they should try a male bird bred from good pedigree poultry, not necessarily a winner, but a real good stock bird, which can be bought at from one to three guineas, splendidly developed and well-bred. This is how show birds have improved ordinary stock very much. Say, for instance, a person has some small, yet pure, Dorking hens. If they buy a good strong Dorking cock, from a well-known prize strain, it is wonderful how the young stock improve the following year —pullets frequently weighing ljlb more and cockerels 2£lbs more. The same holds good in almost every variety. Our readers may inquire whether such pulfets lay as many eggs as those they are bred from. This depends a good deal upon whether the cock bird has come from a good laying strain. When people buy a stock bird they will insist on having sucii a big one. This is not always the bird, as a goodshaped, active bird, perhaps a pound less in weight, will produce better laying pullets tiian a big, raw-boned, longlegged bird. A male bird should never be selected with an abnormal head, as these large-headed birds are nearly always bred from bad laying hens. We have often read where a hen has not laid more than fifteen or twenty eggs in a year. The germs are everything, and the eggs larger, because she lays so few of them.

A cock bird from a good laying hen matures much quicker and begins to notice the hens at least a month earlier. When people are breeding foreshow, the larger they can produce the stock the less eggs are produced. This is the reason why poultry clubs and show committees ought to bring out the standard of every bird, that they are not to go over a certain weight, and to bar all from prize-winning that are abnormal in this particular. If this wero maintained in the interests of utility, our laying stock would in a few years be wonderfully impr i)>-cd. It has always been our aim to produce good lay--ers, and we have laboured long to produce fowls that give pleasure and profit as well, especially in the autumn and winter, when new-laid eggs are scarce. The watchword of the poultry-keeper should bo utility. Our old fanciers and exhibitors, who stick to the old-fashioned birds and ara

unwilling to progress aud study utility, are very nearly in the same place tney occupied twenty or thirty years ago, and yet when people study the laying qualities and go in for utility, that is the time they begin to find that poultry does pay. As we say, at the present day ninety-eight or ninety-nine out of every hundred go in for utility, that- is, go in for fowls either for their own use or for sale, and get a little profit out of the eggs, to one who exhibits, because poultry-keeping is rapidly on the increase, both in town and country.

It must be understood that there are many disappointments in the show pen even with exhibitors who understand their work, and even with those who do not. Birds are liable to take cold at the show when the gas is on, and the show crowded. The birds are often sent off late at night, but this should never happen, as nothing is worse than taking birds from hot pens and putting them into baskets and carting them to a railway station, and thus getting cold. Not only that, there is another drawback. We occasionally lose our birds at the shows, for which the committees d j not- hold themselves responsible.