HOW TO MAKE POULTRYKEEPING PROFITABLE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143772, 22 April 1912, Page 6

HOW TO MAKE POULTRYKEEPING PROFITABLE.

Being a brief summary of some of the ’ leading principles involved in the Breeding, Rearing, Housing, and Feeding of Domestic Poultry, with a chapter oil some of the most common ailments, describing symptoms and treatment.

(By “Tukapa.”) INTRODUCTION.

For generations past, probably ever since the advent of the first settlers in the colony, some sort of interest has been taken in domestic poultry, but it is only during the last Jew years that this interest has been developed, till at the present time it has in many cases become a business, and its importance is steadily increasing. Poultrymen, particularly the utility section, are waking up to the demands of the age. As population increases so does the demand for the products of the poultry yard, and the demand for some time to come is likely to exceed the supply. Whenever there is an unsatisfied demand for any <pm modify it has the effect of inducing’ someone to try and meet that demand., If the person is qualified and competent, well and good, but if he is unable, through lack of knowledge, to produce the article at a satisfactory profit to himself, then the inevitable .result is failure. There are a large number of people scattered about New Zealand who have made the attempt to supply the everincreasing demand for eggs and table poultry, and after losing all their savings have had to give it up because they did not have sufficient knowledge of the business to make it pay. It is intended to publish a short senes Of articles with the object of giving,such information as will put the beginner On tho right track for obtaining knowledge, but it will depend entirely on himself whether he attains success or failure. There are many things which cannot be learned from reading-matter, but if a person is thoroughly conversant with theory and combines it with practice he—will, as our American cousins say, ‘‘make good.” It is not intended to treat the subject by any means exhaustively, but to give a brief outline of some of tho most important points relating to the breeding, rearing, housing, and feeding of poultry. Poultry-keeping does not differ from any other business with regard to the application of business principles. Those who are successful are simply reaping the benefit from strict application of such principles. Luck, good or baa, is not taken into account at all, as it is merely the effect of good or bad methods. Many poultryraen fail through carelessness, incompetence, laziness, or ignorance, and attribute their failure to “bad luck,” and envy the successful man who knows the requirements of the business and makes full use of his knowledge, and call him “lucky. Guesswork or “rule of thumb” methods have no place in poultry culture, and success is secured only by regular methods and strict attention to details, trifling though they may seem to the uninitiated. It appears to be generally believed that poultry can not be made to pay. This is certainly true if they are compelled to undergo the neglect and bad treatment the majority of fowls kept by amateurs are subjected to. Many farmers keep a few fowls running about the homestead or yard; in many cases the only food they got is what they are able to pick up: their only rooeting-plaoe is on tho cowbails, in the trapshed, or in trees (which are_ not bad places from a health point Of view), but if the farmer expects any profit from his fowls he must treat them m a reasonable, sensible way, the some ns he docs his cows 'or other stock. ■ The comparative value of a fowl is so small that farmers (and ether people toe) don’t consider they are worth looking after, hence they pay no attention to how they are bred. They just pick up a few here and a few there till they have what they think is a sufficient number, and they don’t trouble whether they are healthy and free from vermin. They reckon a fowl is only worth a shilling or two, so if one or two die they just buy some more of the same sort. These people show by their regular search for eggs that they expect their hens to lay preity constantly on such treatment; m other words, they expect something for nothing, and when they don’t get it, which is frequently the case, they throw up the business in disgust, and are firmly convinced that fowls cannot under any circumstances be made to pay. If good and sound information had been available most of these people would probably have gone about the business in a different way, and at least made their fowls pay for their feed, and the chances are that not a few would have takena keen interest in poultry culture and advanced stey by stop till success was attained.

BREEDING. To some minds breeding poultry is as easy as making mistakes. All yon have to do is to get a ducky hen and put a few eggs under her and waii three weeks for your chicks. Seems easy, doesn’t it? Breeding is an art which cannot be picked up in a day, and a man would need to live a long time to learn all there is to know about it; but before he can claim success in poultry culture he must master the principles underlying it, and probably nothing contributes more to his success than skill in selecting his stock for breeding. Some men possess this skill in a high degree intuitively; others acquire it bv careful observation and long-continued practice; others, again, never can or do attain it; but however it may come into a man’s possession, it is no mean element in his success. Wo may lay it down as a first principle that a man may as well have a good class of stock as a poor one, no matter whether his aim is eggs or meat. A good strain of fowls costs no more to Feed and require no more attention than a like number of inferior ones, and the good sort will certainly pay a bigger dividend on the capital outlay. It is.a dead loss tc keep common, weedy mongrels which will perhaps lay fifty or sixty eggs in a year and are very inferior for table purposes, and the sura of that loss is just the difference in nett profit which the two kinds of fowls return to their owners. As this difference is a serious one, let ns see in what it consists. Take egg production f or an example: As is well known, there is a great difference in fowls; some will lay considerably more eggs than others of the same breed, oven when kept under exactly the same conditions.

STRAIN. Tho reason for this superiority may he expressed by tho word “strain.” “Strain” is a term that is considerably ‘strained” or abused by a good many poultrymen at ths present time. Some of them purchase or hatch from purchased eggs a few fowls, and by forcing and stimulating foods induce some Of

that number to lay an abnormal number of eggs, then claim to have a heavy laying strain. To establish a strain of fowls to excel in any particular point requires a considerable amount of skill in guiding, controlling, and developing the hidden principles of nature so as to produce the object intended. Before a man can have any reasonable hope of attaining success in establishing a strain of his own he must know at least some of the leading principles involved in the proper breeding of live stock of any kind. Nothing less than a careful study of the laws which govern the economy of animal reproduction will enable him to tell with anything approaching to accuracy what will be the result of the mating of two birds of different strains or families, but the same breed which are distant or not at all related. Sometimes the most promising and'likely mating is proved by the progeny to have been a misfit, while in other cases the result will be more satisfactory than could bo expected. The art of breeding consists of a system of selecting males and females intended to breed together in reference to each other’s merits or defects. It is not always by putting the best male to the best female that the best produce null result, for should they both have a tendency to the same defect, although in ever so slight a degree, it will generally preponderate and be accentuated to such a degree as to render the progeny of little value. We are all more or less apt to notice and magnify any good points our stock map possess, and ignore their defects, but nature will assert herself sooner or later, and she never nlakes a mistake. We may force nature,' or perhaps deviate sometimes from the straight line, but she invariably exacts the penalty. A breed of fowls may be said to be improved when any desired quality has been increased by art beyond what that quality was in a state of nature. What has been produced by art must be continued by the same means, for the moat improved breeds will revert to their original state, or defects will appear which did not exist when in their natural state, unless the greatest attention is paid to the selection of individuals to breed together. We must observe the slightest tendency to imperfections in our stock immediately it appears, so as to be able to counteract it before it becomes a defect. Regard should not only be paid to the qualities apparent in stock selected for breeding, but also to those which have prevailed in the race from which they are decended, as they will always, sooner or later, show themselves in the progeny. In order to enable a man to know these qualities (either good or bad) which he wishes to perpetuate or eradicate, it is necessary to keep a pedigree of his stock, showing a full description of each individual bird, for his guidance in selecting stock for breeding. (To he continued.)