REPORT OF THE POULTRY MANAGER 229 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



exceptional advantages, as they are not only in a position to obtain the same high 

 values as the specialist by producing an equally good article, but should make a larger 

 margin of profit. 



Recapitulation. — Farmers should be keenly alive to the following points, viz. : — 



1. That pure-bred fowls, of the utility varieties, are better for their purposes than 

 nondescripts. 



2. That these fowls require proper housing and management. 



3. That farmers near good markets have exceptional opportunities to obtain the 

 highest prices for strictly new-laid eggs and the superior quality of poultry. 



4. That farmers are able to enter into favourable competition with any rivals. 



5. That whether near a city market or not, the new-laid eggs should be sold as 

 quickly as possible. Special effort should be made to do this in winter or in summer. 



6. That clean-looking and neatly put-up new-laid eggs and well-dressed poultry, 

 of good quality, will sell better than any other kind. 



SECOND ERRONEOUS IMPRESSION, AND COMMENT THEREON. 



The second erroneous impression on the part of many poultry keepers is, that 

 having secured a prolific egg-laying strain of fowl, no effort is necessary to perpetuate 

 the excellence of that strain. 



Comment. — Experience has clearly shown that continued careful and skilled 

 breeding is necessai'y to retain or develop prolific egg-laying characteristics. The 

 term prolific is not used as referring to those phenomenal egg-layers with records of 

 200 to 210 eggs per year each — rare specimens of which are sometimes exploited — but 

 to refer to hens, from which, by selection, we may obtain an average of from 100 to 

 120 eggs each per year. It may be claimed that many fowls, under ordinary condi- 

 tions, lay that number of eggs. But the experience gained in many years, by breeding 

 from layers selected by trap-nest tests, does not verify that assertion. There is reason 

 to believe that, in numerous cases, the number of eggs laid by a specially good hen or 

 two in a pen, have been noted and the laying qualities of the remainder have been 

 rated as of the same exceptional merit. 



The remark may be frequently heard, from an enthusiastic but inexperienced 

 poultryman, ' I have a hen which I believe lays an egg every day.' But what about 

 the merits of the other fowls in the same pen? The impression conveyed is that all 

 the other inmates of the pen are equally extraordinary layers. The trap-nest, with its 

 mechanically correct record, is the surest means of proving which are the best, the 

 worst and the indifferent layers. Only fowls of one of the varieties which have been 

 shown to be good layers of large eggs, as well as of correct market type, should be 

 selected, and these should be carefully mated before being placed in the breeding pen. 

 It is of paramount importance that the male bird, mated with the selected layers, 

 should also come from a family of proved prolific layers, as otherwise there might be 

 retrograde rather than progressive influence. Careless or haphazard mating of old, 

 young or untried birds is not likely to result in success. 



In establishing a strain of prolific layers of large eggs — in combination with good 

 market type — the following breeds may be suggested, viz. : — 



For eggs and flesh. — Select one of the best utility types, such as Barred Plymouth 

 Rocks, White Wyandottes or Buff Orpingtons. 



For eggs only. — A choice may be made of any of the following : White Leghorns, 

 Black Minorcas, Andalusians or Black Hamburgs. 



A rule important to observers is that none but the best layers of the varieties 

 named, should be chosen. Where it is possible to make a selection by trap nests, such 

 fowls should be preferred. 



