190 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



September, 1913 



rates, but the wheat used is no 

 doubt grown on the farm. It is 

 said to cost anythins^ from 15/- 

 to so/- per acre to grow a crop. 

 Split the difference and call it £1 

 12/6 at Rns?worthy. Averafre vield 

 is somewhere about fifteen bushels, 

 so it tak«s 40 acres to grow the 

 600 bushels which is approximate- 

 ly what thev would eat, so that 

 the actual cost of the wheat was 

 about £65. We on"ht really to 

 take £,so off that food bill on this 

 account. In anv case selling on 

 the farm is a lot different to aver- 

 age market rates. Ask anv far- 

 mer how m"ch. He li-es com- 

 fortablv on the latter, but would 

 get quite uncomfortaMv rich on the 

 difference between Ax-heat in the 

 padd'^ck and wheat in the market. 

 The food bill would nro'^aHv st^nd 

 another ^^s deduction, but we can 

 leave it at what thev charge, 

 £-227 V2. 



Piiila<re — Thp railaore charTO is 1/ 

 per case, with returned empties, 

 sav £27. 



Clerical— In puttino- this at £t 

 a week one would appear to be 

 liberal, £52. 



Packinnr — put at two cases an 

 hour, which is not quick work, the 

 488 cases would take 244 hours, 

 which at i/- per hour is obviously 

 £ii2 14/. 



P'rvstap-e — This one can onlv guess 

 at but £to would allow To com- 

 munications to each romT>etit'>r -ner 

 year and 20 per week to sundry 

 new.spapers, etc., call it £10. 



I/ahour — This is, of course, a dif- 

 ficult point, and one in which the 

 comnetitirn difers from ordinary 

 pcpltrv kee^in"^, but we know that 

 a ceetain time has to be spent, a 

 certain distance walked, and a cer- 

 tain weight carried. Kach distri- 

 bfition of food, etc., means ap- 

 proximately a walk of half a mile. 

 Six trips, food twice, water twice, 

 green stuff once, egf collectin<T once 

 make throe miles a d,av. Take two 

 pounds a dav per hen to cover re- 

 quirements of food, water, PTeen- 

 stuff, plus weieht of egtr, and we 

 have varying proportions of ^ of a 

 ton to be moved over varyinti pro- 

 portions of three miles. A .Japan- 

 ese lady of the coal lumping persu- 

 asion wonld do this for 2d. and 

 rear a family on the profits ; a 

 Port Adelaide docker would do the 

 job in his sleep and think he was 

 at a picnic ; a lutrgaire porter does 

 it in an hour and docs not grumble 

 at 8/- a day for doine it. If you 

 double the time for circumstances 

 and double the pay for no appar- 

 ent reason, you get 4/- per day for 

 365 days— £73— which Icoks like 



fair pay for the actual labour, plus 

 £27 for mLxing mash and cutting 

 green stuff, and £20 for cleaning 

 houses— £120. Add 10 per cent, 

 for luck, lice hunting, brooders, 

 spray, nest renewing, etc., you get 

 £132. 



Deduct those costs, £530, from 

 £700 receipts, and you get a 

 balance of £170. Not a big sum 

 but sufficient to amply cover any- 

 thing which can be reasonably 

 charged to competitors. 



We have not mentioned com- 

 mission, but if Mr. Pope handles 

 the eggs, as he no doubt does, 

 there is probably a nice little 

 profit on the £663 income from 

 Cf^gs. Most people would like his 

 chance with the storage facilities 

 at his disposal. 



Our correspondent mentions visi- 

 tors, and the report says that hun- 

 dreds were taken round the pens. 

 This is evidently a mutual advan- 

 tare. A fair way, perhaps, to 

 look at this is for the competitors 

 to have charfred the Colle-^e i/- a 

 head for makinrr it attractive and 

 also to allow i/- a head for the 

 trouble of being made attractive — 

 additionally attractive, of course, 

 we mean — and call it quits. 



We are not charging anything 

 for the — to arain quote the report 

 — " fine advertisement of the State 

 as a whole . . . of which one 

 cannot sufTicientlv appraise their 

 (the competitions') value." As the 

 Government are always very will- 

 in? to pay liberally for an adver- 

 tisement the value of which they 

 can measure, they oiK^ht certainly 

 to recorrnize their iuHebtedness for 

 one which is admittedly immeasur- 

 able. Perhaps if this view of the 

 matter discreetly brought to the 

 notice of the authorities, thev would 

 remit the entrance fee in the next 

 competition. It would be a grace- 

 fi'xl act and much appreciated. 



Hurry on the hatching. Spring 

 is undoubtedly the right time to 

 raise chickens, both from the 

 health and economical points of 

 view. Not only is the feedine cost 

 reduced by the adbundance of na- 

 tural growth, where the liirds have 

 liberty, but tbc food consumed ap- 

 pears to srive better results, weight 

 for weight, than later in the year. 

 Recently a small flock of :hicks 

 was tested to find out the actual 

 wei'rht of food consumed up to 

 killing age, t8 weeks, and it, work- 

 ed out at 14 lbs. 9 ozs. per heud, 

 to bring the birds to 3 H^zs. 12'^ 

 ozs. How does you feeding com- 

 pare with this ? 



Poultry, Bees and Fruit. 



It is generally admitted that 

 poultrA- pays best when run in 

 conjunction with something else, 

 either general farming or some 

 specialized branch of production. 

 It is not so very long ago that 

 most people held "that poultry, on 

 its own, was an impossibility, and 

 at. the prices then ruling, they were 

 probably connect. Present prices 

 make ]3oultrv a very different pro- 

 position to what it was when 

 wheat went up to 7/- per bushel, 

 and eggs down to 2^^d. a dozen. 

 Those are extremie figures, of 

 course, but they did rule for a 

 time. The 50 per cent, on the 8d. 

 yearly average of four or five years 

 ago has made an immense differ- 

 ence, and many people in Austra- 

 lia to-day are proving that poul- 

 try on it's own is a paying game. 

 On the principle that it is not 

 wise to have all one's eggs in the 

 one ba.sk et, there is a good deal 

 to be said in favour of a combina- 

 tion. Dairying and poultry keep- 

 ing is a popular idea. In theory 

 it looks excellent, but in practice 

 it seems to be uncommonly like 

 turninc: penal servitude into slav- 

 ery. The cow is an excellent beast, 

 no doubt, but a pretty exacting 

 master, or should it be mistress, 

 but multiply her by fifty and add 

 five hundred hens, and things be- 

 come lively, if both are run at 

 their top. Their proud possessoT 

 may be able to call his soul his 

 own, but he can certainly lay no 

 such claim to his time. There are 

 men who are doing this double 

 .shunt and doinsf it well. More 

 power and good Itick to them. 

 Their's is certainly not a lazy 

 man's life. If we were looking 

 for something to run with poultry 

 we should certainly try to hit on 

 something that could take care of 

 itself at least for 24 hours at a 

 stretch. Naturally a fruit tree 

 would suggest itself as meeting 

 this requirement and also as being 

 to remain -where one left, for that 

 space of time which cows and 

 poultr\' do not always elect to do. 

 There are instances where poultry- 

 men have become orchardists 

 throuirh planting a few fruit trees 

 foT shade, and some orchardists 

 have become poultry keepers 

 through bringing a few fowls to 

 clear out grubs, etc. Some men 

 have worked up a fine poultry 

 plant and a model orchard from 

 nothini"-, and others have wo'rked 

 'or slacked out of one or both. It 

 always comes back to the man be- 

 hind. To run any single business 

 successfully, wants organizing and 

 exectative ability, to run two 



