SOUTHLAND EGG-LAYING COMPETITION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3292, 18 April 1917, Page 39

SOUTHLAND EGG-LAYING COMPETITION.

Tire final result of this competitionj extending over 51 weeks and four days, shows John DowdalPs six white Leghorns leading with 1510 eggs. Second place is held by J. Stevens's six white Leghorns (1502); third, J. Stevens's white Leghorns (second, pen; 1427); fourth, C. Crichton's white Leghorns (1412). Mr Cousins, the Government Poultry Instructor, it is reported, selected Mr Dowdall's birds for the competition. A writer in the Southland Times makes the following interesting comments o:i the_ competition : " It is interesting to note that a certain northern poultry-writer, when the Southland competition was first mooted, poohpoohed tho idea in his columns, and settled the matter once and for all by saying that hens would never lay in Southland. He didn't say so, certainly, but he very likely held tho opinion that the local Egg Circle should have thrown its competition open to penguins. Now that the local contest has closed, it is possible to make a few compai-isoris between it and the one in Christehurch, the headquarters of the scribe referred to. Taking as a basis of comparison the results up to the fiftieth week, which are the latest available from Christehurch, we find that the leading pen in the north had a tally of 1364 oargs: at Kew the winner's total was then 1479; that there wore' four pens in Kew then ahead of the Christehurch leader; that a Southland breeder's Ohristehurch pen had laid 1052 eggs as against 1316 by tho six birds, which he had at Kew; that a Christchurch party had two pens in' their home contest with tallies of 1198 and 1157 respectively, and that their lay at Kew' was 1228; that the only pen ifi Ohristehurch with a better total than the Kow pen from tho same yards (1236 and 1180) came from the North Island: and. best of all, that the Doubting Thomas of a poultry writer's two pens in the Christehurch competition had then laid 1247 and 1197 respectivelv, while his pen in Southland, where birds could never lav. had at that time accounted for 1329 eggs! "Tho pens at Kew are now undergoing cleaning and fumigation preparatory to the opening of the second competition on the 11th inst."