570 



Agriculture Abroad 



[Sept., 



first thing in the morning, followed at 4 p.m. by a soft feed of 

 boiled sweet potato (yam) mixed with green bone. In the dry 

 season, when there is no natural green food, chopped lettuce 

 grown specially in gardens which are watered daily was fed 

 to the birds. From January to March mussels obtained from the 

 shrunken river beds were given, the pounded shells being fed 

 as shell grit all the year round. Some maize was fed to grow- 

 ing stock, but wheat and other European grains are scarce. 



With the exception of a short period at the beginning of the 

 dry season in October, hens lay eggs all the year round in 

 Northern Nigeria. Moulting takes place between x\ugust and 

 November. As there is no skilled labour on the Kaduna breed- 

 ing station, only natural hatching is resorted to, and this goes 

 on throughout the year, the best results being in March. The 

 percentage of eggs hatched varies from 60 to 90. Newly-hatched 

 chicks are fed on broken wheat, broken dari and millets, and 

 the larvffi of termites (white ants), boiled rice being added a few 

 days later. Charcoal is fed to birds of all ages, and chickens 

 have it powdered in their soft food (yams). Glauber salts and 

 iron sulphate are put in the drinking water for 24 hours each 

 week, and sulphur is mixed in the soft food in very hot weather. 

 The problem of insect pests is a serious one, lice, red mite, and 

 poultry tick being common among the native poultry, the last 

 named being much dreaded as a disease carrier. As a preventive, 

 all the birds on the station are dipped once a quarter in a 5 per 

 cent, paraffin emulsion, while any houses badly infested are 

 burned. This treatment has proved very successful. The only 

 disease from which the imported poultry have suffered so far is 

 chicken pox, which is enzootic among the native fowl and was 

 probably introduced with the bran bought at a local market; 

 no native fowls are kept within a quarter of a mile of the 

 breeding station. This disease ran through the whole yard, but 

 yielded readily to antiseptic treatment, there being no mortality. 



No egg records are available, as the number of birds has 

 varied and all the hens have been used regularly for sitting. 

 It is hoped to raise on the breeding station a large number of 

 pure bred fowls, and in the first place to distribute the cockerels 

 (by sale) to the chiefs of the villages in order to improve the 

 native fowl by crossing. The first crosses with the native fowl 

 are half-caste in appearance and intermediate in size between 

 the imported and native breeds. Over 100 of the pure'-bred 

 cockerels reared at the station have already been distributed over 

 an area extending from Sokoto to Lake Chad. 



