JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAUDENER. 



[ May 23, 1872. 



ing the ground with soot, sea sand, and salt, have been recommended, bat a 

 better plan is to employ children to catch and destroy the Daddy-longlegs 

 when they appear. — I. 0. W. 



Names of Plants {T. ^.).— Prmrns Potlus, the Bird Cheny. (G. P.Jun.). 

 1 and 2, Two forms of Nephrolepis cordifolia; 3, Erica vestita (Thunb); 

 4, Erica, near cerinthoides; 5, Caliistemon lanceolatus (D.C): 6, Mespilus 

 grandiflora. (Inquirer). — Polypodiam iCampyloneTironl august i folium (Swz.) 



POULTRY, BEE, AOT) PiaEON CHRONICLE. 



INCEEASING EGG-PEODUCTION. 



Eefebbing more particularly to that portion of Mr. Wright's 

 notes which deals with the possibility of an increased produc- 

 tion of egQS, hy a system of careful and judicious breeding — 

 having this object in view I can confirm, from the results of 

 actual experience, the soundness of his opinions. 



Presuming that I am the friend of whom Mr. Wright speaks 

 as possessing the Brahma puUet which laid such a remarkable 

 number of eggs within the twelvemonth, I can add to the testi- 

 mony with which it was my pleasure to furnish him, that since 

 then another of her progeny has manifested the same desirable 

 characteristics, and has been laying during this year so plenti- 

 fully as almost to excel her parent in this respect, though, like 

 her also, she is valueless as an exhibition bird. This disposition 

 to lay abundantly, however, I have this year found not to be 

 confined to birds inferior in form and feather. A handsome 

 Brahma pullet, one of a brood hatched from a sitting of eggs 

 obtained from my friend Mr. Wright, has demonstrated the 

 possession of equal productive power, by a course of continuous — 

 almost daily — laying, during the whole of this year up to the 

 present time, such as could have scarcely been expected even by 

 the most sanguine admirer of this favourite description of fowl. 

 She has occasionally manifested a tendency to broodiness by the 

 ■nsual clucking, and a little longer sitting on the nest, but it has 

 soon passed away, and with no diminution of her daily contri- 

 bution to the egg-basket. I hope, by carefully following out 

 in breeding the line thus indicated, to obtain a race of Brahmas 

 possessing the happy combination of qualities which combine in 

 an essential degree the ornamental with the useful; and I am 

 sure that Mr. Wright, to whom I am indebted for many a friendly 

 "wrinkle," is doing a good service in bringing so prominently 

 before your readers a question of so much importance in these 

 days, when the abundance of production, either of flesh or eggs, 

 or both, is a matter of no small moment to many who seek, by 

 the aid of a poultry yard, to reduce their demand on their 

 butcher. — Bk.ih5Li. 



HOME PKODUCTION OF EGGS AND POULTRY. 

 {Contmued from page 414.) 



We must now come to the more important part of this con- 

 sideration, and which is the comparative question of cost of 

 keeping and return that may be realised by their produce ; for 

 it is upon this head the whole question turns, which is the 

 " home producing of eggs and poultrj- in a commercial point of 

 view ; " and unless it can be satisfactorily shown that fowls 

 properly cared for are capable of returning a profit commensu- 

 rate with the cost and attention bestowed upon them, it will in- 

 deed be useless to attempt to encourage the more general keep- 

 ing of poultry by our struggling population, who can only afford 

 to consider the subject in its pecuniary sense. However trae 

 the cry may be " Poultry don't pay us," there is one thing quite 

 certain, which is, that they do pay our immediate neighbours, 

 who not only produce sufficient eggs and poultrj- for their own 

 enormous demand, but a surplus sufficient to meet our pressing 

 wants. It has been said, by way of excusing ourselves, that the 

 French, Dutch, and Germans have the advantage of climate over 

 us, and that they can produce poultry and eggs at a profit when 

 ■we cannot. This, however, is mere assertion, and is not borne 

 out by the experience of those who have resided in those 

 countries ; and I myself, in visiting HoDand and Germany, have 

 quite failed to see that climate has much, if anything, to say to 

 the matter. The true secret of the success of our neighbours 

 lies rather m the fact of their understanding more about the 

 management of poultry than we do, and paying far more attention 

 to the feeding and breeding, and generally in the care and atten- 

 tion they bestow upon their stock. Fowls are also far more 

 generally kept by the country people, and in far greater num- 

 bers, and the breed is generally far superior to our common fowl, 

 and not allowed to degenerate to the same extent. 



We will now consider in detail what is that necessary treat- 

 ment and management necessary to enable the poultry-keeper to 

 realise the largest profits this valuable bird is capable of return- 

 ing; but before doing this I wiD, by way of contrast, just 

 touch upon the treatment that has been very generally adopted 

 by ourselves during the past two hundred years bv the bulk of 

 the farmers and cottagers in this country. There will, I think, 

 then be little difficulty in understanding'why the cry has arisen 



far and wide that fowls and poultry do not pay. With twenty 

 millions of mouths to feed, and depending as we do on foreign 

 supply for one-half the food we consume, we cannot afford to 

 keep fowls at a loss, and they, Uke everything else in this matter- 

 of-fact age, will have to stand the test of " Does it pay ? " and it 

 will stand or fall by the pubho verdict. Whatever may be said 

 to the contrary by those who cling to old customs and ideas, it is 

 undeniable that our old stock of poultry has degenerated into 

 a small, unprofitable mougi-el, rather tolerated upon the farm 

 than cared for as a source of profit. I will not go so far as to say 

 that our poultry has so degenerated as to be necessarily unprofit- 

 able ; for I am of opinion that even our commonest mongrel 

 breed, if properly treated, will return a profit ; but what I do 

 say is, that degeneration of our breeds, coupled with imperfect 

 housing and protection, insufficiency of food, and want of general 

 care and attention, has made them wholly unprofitable stock ; 

 hence the cry has spread far and wide that poultry will never be 

 made to pay. There are certain essential rules that must be 

 practised to make fowls profitable. The first is to keep your 

 stock young, and clear off your birds at that age at which they 

 leave the largest profit. Secondly, to hatch your chickens as 

 earl J- in the spring as possible, so as to give them the advantage of 

 the entire summer, to hasten them to lay in maturity, and so 

 obtain as early a supply of eggs as possible, and at a season when 

 they command the highest price. Thirdl3-, to keep a breed of 

 fowls that is hardy and comes early to maturity, easily fattened 

 for the table, and a precocious and prolific egg-layer. Fourthly, 

 comfortable housing, together with a regular supply of sufficient 

 food to keep them in laying condition. 



I think most will agree with me that the observance of 

 these essential rules is the exception, and not the rule, among 

 the general run of poultry-keepers. Fowls of all sizes, breeds, 

 and ages are to be seen scampering about the farmsteads here 

 and there, picking up their living as best they can ; roosting 

 about the trees and farm -buildings where they choose ; making 

 nests and laying about the premises here and there, and 

 many of the few eggs laid being lost or stolen. Chickens are 

 hatched at all times throughout the summer — late rather than 

 early — and few if any eggs are consequently produced during 

 the winter months, the season when the eggs 'are most valuable, 

 commanding the highest price. A minimum of eggs is onl3- 

 produced, and these during the spring months and at harvest 

 time, when food is most abundant, and when eggs are most 

 plentiful in the market, and only command the lowest price. 

 It is estimated that our common mixed breed or barndoor 

 fowls so treated will not produce more than fifty-five to sixty 

 eggs in the twelve months, and these produced at a time of year 

 when eggs seldom command a higher price than 8f?. per dozen, 

 or a total annual return from each bird of 3s. 4//. Now, if we 

 deduct from this the value of the food consumed, and which 

 it has gathered for itself, we cannot possibly put this at less than 

 one halfpenny per week per bird, or a total of 2s. Id. for the 

 twelve months, which, deducted from the 3s. id., leaves the 

 miserable return of Is. 3d. to cover cost of rearing, attendance, 

 casualties, &c. Their manure or droppings is invariably wasted 

 by the birds roosting about the farm-buildings, or, if confined to 

 a proper henroost, their manure is seldom or ever collected, or 

 made use of and turned to a profitable account. With manage- 

 ment such as I have described it is hardly to be wondered at 

 that fowls are considered unprofitable. Very little, if any, better 

 or more profitable result is obtained by rearing chickens for 

 market purposes. Chickens are, as a rule, hatched and reared 

 at a season when there is a glut in the market, and command a 

 correspondingly low price, and owing to their comparatively 

 small size and half-fatted condition, the price realised is such as 

 to leave little or no profit to compensate for the cost of food and 

 attention that has been bestowed upon them. As I said before, 

 it is essential in rearing fowls for market purposes to hatch your 

 birds at a season when the market will not be overstocked, and 

 to keep a breed of birds for this pm-pose that shall combine size 

 and weight with early maturity and readiness to fatten. As a 

 rule, it cannot be denied that the farmer's poultry yard does not 

 receive the same care and attention that is bestowed upon other 

 farm stock, and yet there is certainly no stock kept that will bring 

 in a larger or more immediate return than poultry, managed as 

 it should be. Fowls are, the greater part of the year, left to 

 themselves to live as best they can ; or if fed, insufficiently fed, 

 and only upon refuse com. At one season of the year — harvest 

 time — there is a superabundance, and the rest of the year a 

 scarcity, and not sufficient to enable them to maintain them- 

 selves in a profitable condition. 



I will now direct your attention to a simple, iuexpensive, and 

 rational system of poultry management, siicdias may be practised 

 by all, and one that will not fail to return a splendid profit from 

 this most profitable branch of husbandry, practised as it should 

 be; and I shall conclude by showing the national importance, 

 in a commercial point of view, of producing the five hundred 

 millions of eggs we now import. I will illustrate the profitable 

 management of a small poultry-yard by describing that which I 



