ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 28

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

G.A.C., Henderson, sends me a sample oi what lias been sold to him as lucerne meal. In this case there is not even the redeeming feature that G.A.C. has trot what he paid for. What has been sold to him are merely shudes from the lucerne heads, and which may be ■ gathered in quantity around the site of a lucerne stack when it has been cut up and removed. This stuff is all right for scratching litter, and any farmer who • scows lucerne will hand it over for the asking. It Is useless as a feed for poultry, as the birds will not consume it. Lucerne meal is made from the plant itself, and the proceeds of preparation extracts a.l coarse elements, as well as the dust, and reduces the lucerne plant to the grade of present-day pollard. S.T., Tuakau. —Birds troubled by worms lose weight and vitality, but as this is also a sign of many other complaints the only sure way of confirming suspicions is by examining the droppings. The best ; remedy is to administer one grain of santonine with seven grains of areca nut in a soft bread pill after the bird has fasted three or four hours. Four hours later again give it a meal of soft warm food containing about 20 grains of Epsom salts. Burn all dropping from affected birds. It is advisable to repeat this treatment after an interval of a week to make sure that the system has been cleared. F.W.W., Avondale. —You are treating the warty growths correctly hy painting them with tincture of iodine, but the birds need an internal remedy as well, and this should be a teaspoonful of flowers of sulphur between each three birds daily in their soft food, and iodine of potassium in their drinking water. Mix one drachm of iodine of potassium in Goz. water, bottle the same, and .add one teaspoonful to each pint of drinking water. Game-Cock, Remuera. —As I did not handle the Game birds at any of the three shows you mention I cannot say ir the bird you refer to was crookedbreasted or not. Consequently I have no intention of entering into any controversy over the matter. If the bird was crooked-breasted he should certainly have been passed. In my opinion a crookedbreastbone in a Game cock is as bad as a bird that is either in-kneed or bowlegged.

The Government is again giving a guarantee this year, and it is essential that all poultry-keepers should give their support to the exportation of our surplus eggs. It is only by building up an export trade that we can hope to stabilise the industry. Judging from the number of people who attended the Auckland Game Club’s show, the event should prove a financial success. Auckland fanciers, too, can congratulate themselves on their successes, as, in spite of exhibits coming from the majority of the best yards in tke North Island, they were able more than to hold their own. The Bantam section was a show in itself and one of the best I have seen for some time.