POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2805, 18 December 1907, Page 35

POULTRY NOTES.

Bx Tebhor.

! —Mr H. B. Greene, M.R.C.S., England, IiTRsCCP.I., contributed a gaper on "The Influence^ of Heredity Upon "Disease and De- . fortuities or Poultry" to fhe Reading Conference, and as it is on a subject of such vital -interest to poultry breeders, I intend to quote from it rather fully. — Dr' Greene says we cannot describe disease as in a true sense hereditary, and, he does not believe that any disease, not even excepting tubtrele, can be inherited. Disease modifies the body cells profoundly by interfering with their nutrition, and the nature, o£ the modification is often revealed by symptoms, but we are not to conclude that the germ cells are not simultaneously impaired, simply because they are less accessible to observation. The offspring from such germ cells are severely handicapped as regards their general stamina, and it is not to be wondered at that through heredity they possess the same inability to resist disease as had previously been exhibited by their parents. To put it concisely^ tlie thing- inherited is not the disease, but degenerative characters, which naturally are as powerless in the offspring to repulse the onslaught of bacteria, as they proved to have been in the ease of the parent. A disease is after all only the result of the reaction of the system to "a certain stimulus or existing cause. The reaction may be slight and local, or so profound and ceneral as to threaten or destroy ( life. And the stimulus varies also ; It may be mechanical, as from a blow or injury, or chemical, as is the case when constituents of the nutritive fluids become altered through improper diet, heat, and cold, op the presence of bacteria and their poisonous nroduc+s. It is therefore, manifestly more correct to think of disease as environment rather than inheritance: as one' <>f many other agents hostile to Hie, which must, like a beast of prey, be fought and- repu'sed" rather than be recognised and perpetuated 1 by lieredity as a character likely to be useful to ihff individual. The foregoing is, to my mind, the rcosfc important statement ' put forth ' in Dr Greece's paper, which was in ite turn unquestionably one of the most interesting and instructive submitted to the great and influential gathering at Reading. It, was written' with the full knowledge that all . that was submitted to the conference would* bo printed 1 and circulated throughout the whole poultry world; consequently, he only dealt with known truths which could, as .they already had, bear criticism of the keenest description. At the conference itself Dr Greene's paper was not criticised either ' favourably or adversely — it wa3 * practically taken as read, and the meeting satisfied itself merely by asking one or two questions. s — Thi* romark that disease is more correctly thought of as environment rather than inheritance, and merely as 'one of many agents hostile to life, ■ and which is to be fought as a. beast of prey, has been strikingly borne out within my own ex ; perience. and a ease in point was reported in -the Witness after one of my trips south a couple of years back. In the course of a series of visits amongst fanciers, I chanced uninvited to meet with a gentleman who was farming a fairly larsre mob of fowls under the very best possible conditions as regards housing and feeding, and the range afforded was not only ample, but absolutely of the most favourable description The time of my visit was the opening of the moulting season, and th's proprietor was much puzzled to aeoount for mortality then taking pace. I had arrived on the premises whilst the owner was at breakfast, and noticing a dead bird - had taken the liberty of dissecting it. so that when subsequently the conditions were being explained to me and I was asked for an opinion as to tho caure of the losses sustained I was in a position to say that the birds then stand in or about (some still on their perches) had enlarged livers, and that it would be as well to. kill them as let them linger. My opinion being doubted, I was able to point to the bird I had opened to ' satisfactorily verify my statement; and then, naturally, mm asked^for the cause and how to prevent further trouble. I said: "Do nothing to cure, but simply go on feeding and otherwise oaring for your birtfe as you have done. This particular lot of birds, you have told me, were hatched from eggs produced by hens in a- town fancier's haolr -*t/1 and I haotien 'to '■■now that th© experience of this breeder is to raise but a very small parcentage of his ctickens owing to his persistent in-breeding for fancy points. With your • wonderfully favourable conditions you have raised every chick (they had thriven because of their environment), and until they had to face a severe strain such as •moulting all went well. This strain has proved an exciting cause, an unwonted stimulus, to & naturally weak organism, «nd acme have succumbed to it. Those^ that survive are the fittest, and the'r chickens will not, in all probability (thanks to the environment which their parents have enjoyed as well aa themselves), have any difficulty in facing the moult when their turn comes." — I learnt at a recent Interview with the farmer-fancier in question that he had had no further trouble with his fowls at the last moult or at any time, and the lesson to be drawn from this case is, I Imagine, that stock inbred or otherwise prone to disease may be reinstated in full vigour in a couple or so generations by change to environment giving required conditions. n —Dr Greene says that acquired characteristics cannot be transmitted. [This i» Professor Welsmann's theory. — Tbbbob.] He says: — "A fertilised egg embodies not only the" character (not acquired) of immek diate parents, but represents in addition

those of 1 ancestors, come, perchance, so remote as to -have belonged to a preexistent type or species, and heredity ensures that ancestral characters, at least in so far as they are of a type likely to benefit the race, shall be handed on like some precious family heirloom from generation 'to generation. A breeder, independent of natural selection, with all its drawbacks, can absolutely choose within certain limits into what channels he will divert heredity, but he cannot create variaT4ons; he- can at best only seize upon them as they appear, and endeavour to develop or suppress them in the direction of his ideal variety. The breeder must remember that although he can combine characters and bring about variations in rapid succession, variation in an upward direction is governed and limited by heredity. The moment a character becomes exaggerated to suoh a degree as to be detrimental to the individual, deterioration sets in from other quarters, and the very t-xistenoe of the variety may be threatened. * For instance, comb has, in some ox our finest laying breeds, such as Andalusians and Minorcas, been developed by selection so abnormally as to require a- wire splint for its support. The consequence being that the powers of reproduction and fertility are now paying the penalty, and, iike the Spanish fowls, .these • breeds are not unlikely to become extinct. Similarly the utilitarian who aims at prodigious egg averages with the aid of trap nests and forcing 'diet, and breeds lis stock only to that ideal, irrespective of the points of type and purity of variety, will soon fmd that heredity decrees that hens which have so little propriety as to lay 250 eggs per annum deserve to die of cystic ovarian disease, or at least to have their powers of fertility effectually curtailed. The explanation of these things is that Nature demands that a balance of nutrition must be evenly maintained throughout the sys tern. An extra supply of blood to one I organ can only be effected by economy, in its distribution to another, and the impoverished parts lose' their functions through inherited degeneration. - — Notwithstanding all the above, not by any means new, teaching, and accepting it all as true, we cannot overlook the fact that a certain strain of fowls bred by artificial selection are putting up wonder? ful records as layers this year— not at one egg-laying contest, but at several simultaneously,—conclusive evidence ' that the breaking strain in their case is not withm the limits -at least of 250 eggs per annum. Fanciers will, apparently, have to discover, each for himself, what is the limit to be reached by progressive stages of improvement by his own particular strain, and at the first symptoms of degeneration to counteract saaae by an infusion of new blood, in introducing which it may be found the wiser -course not to seek for a sire from a strain similarly played out, but from (as I' indicated la!& week »O speaking of Hogan tested birds) a strain bred for fanoy points only, even though it be one in which the laying faculty is practically dormant. By such £ selection, it- is, I hold, masfilost that bone and general stamina will be reintroduced into the flock, and m-all probability the laying propensity of the progeny wiLI not be impaired by the mating, for a show/ bird mated with utility hens amounts to a first-cross, which experience has proved is generally beneficial in the matter of eggs, all which goes to bear out my oft-repeated contention that the fancy and utUity must go hand- in-hand, the one building up, not monstrosities, bilfc » I ™* of beauty, vigour, and pure strain, and the other seeking to breed birds profitable as layers or for the table; else where is the utility man to go to to reinstate his. worncut stock? ■ •_ .„ „ .. — Central Produce Mart (Really, Scott, and Gill, proprietors) Teport for week ending Saturday, the 14th:— As usual this season of-the year-, large supplies of poultry are coming to hand. At our sale on Wednesday last we had a very large yarding; all birds* in good condition found buyers under strong competition. Turkeys and ducklings are in short supply, and all good birds would command extreme rates. Eggs are in fair , supply. We received 135 cases. Butter is slow of sale. -Pigs are wanted. We have pleasure in quoting" the following prices as by us:— Hens, '2s to 3s 9d; ducks, 4s 8d to 5;- 6d; ducklings, 6s to 6s 6d; gosling, 5s 6d to 7s 8d; cockerels, 2s 6d to 4s 6d per pair: turkeys— gobKers 9d to lOd, hens 6d per Ib. Eggs— storekeepers' parcels realised Is, stamped and guaranteed Is id to 1" Id. Butter— farmers' parcels 7d to j Bd. Pigs— Bolb to 1001b, sid to 6d. *We expect large supplies of poultry the coming week, and expect lower prices, to rule.