POULTRY RAISING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9643, 19 January 1903, Page 4

POULTRY RAISING.

. (Melbourne.. Argus.)' The keen demand wUicti exists for Victorian poultry both m the London and South African markets, to say nothing of ■the growing expansion of the Australian market, winch better-bred poultry and better methods of placing these before the consumer is undoubtedly creating, points to wide room for expansion m poultry raising. There is not one of the minor industries of agriculture so full of hopeful promise, can be more readily taken up* _ by persons of limited means, or is so capable of yielding an attractive profit i where painstaking care m regard to de- ' toil, on which its success so largely de- ! l f pands, can be given to the work. Individual orders have come from South Africa this year for a supply of 15,000 to 20,000 birds at a price which " would pay well; but it has to be said j with regret that so far short is the supply ■ that these tempting orders could not be filled. The demand so fur exceeds the ' supply that the householder is amazed 1 to rind that 6s to 8s per pair is demanded for decent table fowls ! The degree of success to which poultry raising has attained during recent years i m the United States is astonishing. The output of the .industry amounts to mil- ,. lions of dollars annually, thousands of men earn their livelihood at the business, and great poultry farms, turning out ten to twenty thousand chickens and duck- . lingsiyearly, are quite common ; while the agricultural colleges and experiment stations hayo entered with zeul on the work of spreading information on the industry, and helping it forward by careful and in--1 telligent experimental work. Again, the Utah Experiment ' Station quite recently carried out a striking experiment to determine the relative laying values of young and old hens, Brown Leghorns were chosen, and they were classed as pullet*, year-old hens, and hens two years old and upwards. Every ounce of food was weighed and valued; and the experiment .carried right, .over the laying season, with the result that it was demonstrated that' 1000 old laying lions, after paying' for their food, would return their owner £40 for his labor and investment, while an equal number of one-year-olds would give him £152, and of pullets £232.