94 



When these insects visit house, stable or elsewhere, it has to be 

 vacated at once, for a time,, (often 4 or 5 hours) as anything living is 

 sure to suffer from their attack. Horses especially have a great 

 dread of them, and plunge and kick in the effort to get free, which 

 is often the first notice to man, of the approach of these formidable 

 creatures. The workers of the column are some ^ an inch in length. 

 The male and female forms have not been seen by us, and the place of 

 the insect in classification is not as yet to our hand. 



We should be glad if any reader can supply us with further 

 information. 



629. -SOMETHING ABOUT POULTRY. 



In publishing this article on Poultry, we arc led to do so in answer 

 to frequent enquiries. The subject matter describes in full the practice 

 which has been successfully followed under our own eyes for many 

 years past and is therefore placed before our readers with confidence, 

 but we are largely indebted to a Bulletin published by the Queensland 

 Government in 1896 for the substance of the article, the matter of 

 which has however been edited to meet West Indian conditions : — 



" Though there is not a big fortune to be made by poultry, there 

 is more than a living for the man or woman who goes into the work 

 systematically and with a determination to succeed. It is a common 

 cry that fowls don't pay ; but go to the housewife who keeps her score 

 of hens or so, and ask how many dozen of eggs she sells per week to 

 her neighbours ? Ask the farmer what he makes by his eggs ? Both 

 will tell you that their fowls pay them handsomely. 



" There are very few industries in the world that require so little 

 capital to start them as poultry-farming. Many instances are known 

 where £5 has been expended far more successfully, and has produced 

 much greater results than £50. 



" A man who is handy with tools can put up his yards and fowl- 

 houses at very small expense ; and if he is willing to wait, or can 

 afford to do so, till he lias raised his stock from the eggs, a £o-note 

 will buy him a;ood stock and give him an excellent start. 



"What is wanted among poultry-keepers is a better class of stock- 

 Mongrel hens eat more and lay fewer eggs than the better bred strains. 

 At the same time, a yard can be improved by the introduction of good 

 male birds ; and it is better that this should be done instead of 

 doing away with the flock to make a fresh start. It is truly wonder- 

 ful Iioav soon a miserable-looking, in-bred, undersized collection of 

 fowls can lie improved by judicious selection for breeding /rom, and the 

 mating with, well-bred roosters. 



" For instance, suppose some reader has a pen of mixed and mongrel 

 birds ; let him look round for a vigorous young hall-bred rooster, and, 

 picking out six or eight of his best liens, pen them up together in a 

 wire netted yard. 



"If he can manage to buy a few i'^ from someone who has 

 better fowls than his own. he should do so, or he may be able to 

 exchange a couple of birds fit for killing for a few good eggs: and 

 these, when hatched, will give him a little fresh blood. When these 



