850 



Education and Research in Poultry Keeping. [Dec, 



(4) By annual " farmers' weeks " and poultry conferences. 

 State and county poultry surveys have also been undertaken, 

 and by means of questionaires and personal inquiries much 

 authoritative statistical information has been collected. 



Summarising his remarks, l\h\ Brown stated that the great 

 Colleges of Agriculture give to the subject of poultry keeping 

 a status in the curriculum equal with other subjects. All 

 Authorities realise that instruction and investigation are closely 

 interrelated, and make liberal grants in both these directions. 

 The staff engaged is adequately remunerated, but a high 

 standard of qualification and experience is demanded. While 

 poultry keeping in its higher branches has been starved in 

 this country, it has been liberally supported in America. 



Poultry Research. — Professor Charnock Bradley, M.D. , D.Sc. , 

 F.R.C.V.S., dealt with the question of poultry research. He 

 said that in the discussion and justification of research two main 

 questions demand answers: (1) Is research worth while? and 

 (2) Is it necessary? 



The first turns upon the commercial significance of th6 

 industry. An accurate estimate of the world population of 

 poultry is impossible, but an imperfect idea of the importance 

 of the poultry industry in civilised communities can be formed. 

 The country with the largest poultry population is the United 

 States of America. In 1910, on 5,578,528 farms there were 

 290,350,000 fowls, 3,688,000 turkeys, 2,906,000 ducks, 

 4,431,000 geese, 1,765,000 guinea fowls, 2,730,000 pigeons, 

 6,458 pea fowls and 5,361 ostriches. At that time the total 

 value of these birds was dG36,000,000, and their value would 

 be much greater now. The figures refer only to poultry kept 

 on farms. In Great Britain such high figures cannot be reached, 

 ' but information available for poultry on holdings on 4th June, 

 1908, shows that there were in this country 32,356,000 fowls, 

 2,963,000 ducks, 712,000 geese, 697,000 turkeys. The number 

 of fowls is now very much greater than it was in 1908. 



No figures are available for Continental countries, but their 

 absence is not of vital moment. The importance of poultry 

 as a national asset is recognised in every civilised country, and 

 it cannot be denied that there is a constant and serious loss 

 from disease. Clearly then, if research will diminish this loss, 

 it is abundantly worth while. If research did no more than add 

 the equivalent of but one egg to the annual total of every laying 

 hen in the Kingdom it would add at least £250,000 to the 

 revenue of the nation. 



