POULTRYMEN’S MISTAKES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19957, 26 November 1926, Page 13

POULTRYMEN’S MISTAKES.

UTILITY AND SHOW BIRDS. In an address to members of the Utility Poultry Club on Wednesday night, Mr I<. C Brown (chief New Zealand poultry instructor) stated that fanciers, breeders, and judges made the mistake of aiming at obtaining exaggerated show points, whereas utility breeders erred on the side of working only for egg production. Mr F. Hanson presided over a large attendance. The title of the address was l'ancy Poultry v. Utility: The Difference, and Why " This, said the speaker, was a very debatable questions, and there were conflicting opinions, particularly between the fancier and the utility man. He could tell them that it was not a very happy position to come as a buffer between these conflicting interests. _ He had no quarrel with the fancier, nor any desire to interfere with him m any way. The fancier could breed any type he liked Twenty years ago the speaker had a big quarrel with him when utility was advocated. But that rivalry had been narrowed down, and both sides had com" to the common ground that it was possible to have one of the most beautiful birds which could also be a maximum egg-producer. . They should not have bitter rivalry m these things, for there were problems tor the earnest and immediate thought of all. He had given thought to the type ot bird they should use in this country to build up the industry. '•The fancier can breed them as big a« ostriches if he likes, and give them all his exaggerated show points, said the ■speaker, "but if there is any tendency to brin" our popular breeds back to those exaggerated show types—those monstrosities one could call them—l, as chief instructor, ..will most strenuously oppose it." They must not forget, though, that they owed much to the fancier. While a hens first mission was to lay opes, and as many it s possible, it did not follow, when they came to breeding that the progeny of that particular bird would equal herself. I.he speaker appealed for a use of purebred stock as being better for everyone than mongrels, and asked that the fancier should consider more than beauty or show points and the utility man more than c""s. Both ideas should be combined.