MAKING HENS PAY

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6597, 9 May 1925, Page 8

MAKING HENS PAY

Harry Tate is a well-known English humorist who has a peculiar brand of fun all his own. The irresponsible Harry- tells the story how, at a meeting of a smallholders* club, a somewhat dejected-looking member was asked: “Do you think poultrykeeping pays?” “Well, no, I can’t say that I do; but I think it pays my son, Jim.” “How’s that?” ‘,Well, you see, I bought him the fowls; I.have to pay for their keep; I buy the eggs from him and he eats them.”

The story of a dog and an egg comes from East Leake, in Leicestershire, where a large black retriever belonging to a local farmer has shown a partiality for a pullet whilst being on bad terms with the rest of the feathered inhabitants of the farm. Every morning the pullet has walked over the dog’s back to the end of its kennel and laid an egg. The dog has immediately eaten it, shell and all. When he »was found out an attempt was made to cure the dog by substituting an egg filled with mustard. The dog, however, ate the doctored egg and was not cured.