IMPORTANT INDUSTRY

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12423, 17 April 1926, Page 6

IMPORTANT INDUSTRY

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT EXPERIMENTS AND RESEARCH WALLACEVILLE AND RUAKURA With a view to assisting the further development of the poultry industry in the Dominion, it has been decided to establish a poultry breeding experimental and research station in association with the present laboratory at.Wajlaceville, near Wellington. This will be devoted particularly to experimental work in connection with the feed of poultry, having particular regard to tne cost of food and any other directions aimed a l an improvement upmi the present methods of poultry keeping and poultry management, having regard always to the question of cost which at the present high price of poultry food constitutes a very serious matter for those engaged in the industry. Experimental work will also be carried out in connection withi1. The control of diseases, ailments, and parasites affecting poultry. 2. The hatching and rearing of stock

by artificial means on advanced lines. 3. The breeding of tested pedigree' stock. REMODELLING RUAKURA In addition to this the present poultry station at Ruakura farm, which has been in existence for a number of years, is to be entirely remodelled. The present buildings are distributed over a considerable area pf ground, and in the light of present day methods are out of date, both as regards their arrangement and their construction. In remodelling the farm it is intended to also* alter the system of carrying out the work, and to concentrate particularly upon establishing and maintaining* a utility, plant so arranged as to enable it to be followed by farmei>. and others who desire to coriimence business on lines within the scope of a limited capital. Thq plant will thus be run as a practical object lesson in modern poultry keeping for commercial purposes. This, while proving of benent to the poultry industry as a will also render the blant an extremely'useful adjunct to tne Ruakura Farm School for instructional purposes in connection with the students. One very important and very striking feature of the poultry industry in many older countries, not only from the point of view of their internal markets, but also from the point of view of their export trade, lies in the fact that in these countries a very large proportion pf the eggs placed on both local and export markets are produced on farms where poultry are kept in , association with ordinary farming operations. So far as New Zealand is concerned, the bulk of the eggs hitherto sent forward for export when a surplus was available, have been produced by poultry farmers, and the industry has been seriously handicapped of latd owing to tfie high price which has had to be paid for poultry foods. The general farmer keeping a< limited number of birds is able to fded his birds at much less cost owing to the fact that a certain amount of food material which would otherwise ho wasted is available on most farms. It is desired to do all that is possible to .encourage trrmjrs an‘d their fanfiiics throughout the Dominion to conduct/ poultrv-keeping as a side-line on good, up-to-date, practical lines, and as an aid to this it is considered that the remodelling of the Ruakura poultry farm will prove of very considerable value. As an instance of what is done fn other, countries on small holdings, the following figures are very striking:

In Ireland, out of a total of 570,000 holdings, upwards of 400.000 are of not more than 30 acres in extent; and of this number 114,000 " are under one acre. Twenty-five years ago the total value of the poultry produce of Ireland was less than £4,000,000, whilst in 1921 a reasonable estimate of the annual value of the industry has been put down at £24,600.000. In 1919 the estimated value of poultry products exported from Ireland was £18,319,795. Denmark, another country of small holdings, furnishes the following: l —ln the year,.lßßß there were about 4£ millions of poultry, ten years later 8J- millions, in 1914 15 millions, and in 1923 20 .millions, whilst during that year tho egg export stood as the third largest of all Danish agricultural products.