February, 1912. 



131 



Live Stock, 



Another clause provides for quaran- 

 tining districts within the United States 

 where new diseases or insect enemies 



have gaiued a foothold until such dis- 

 tricts have been freed from such diseases 

 or insects. 



LIVE STOCK. 



POULTRY NOTES. 



(By P. A. V.) 



It may not be a matter of common 

 knowledge that keeping poultry helps to 

 bring about the improved fertility of the 

 surrounding land. It may strike one as 

 impossible ; and no wonder since no 

 systematic attempt is made in this coun- 

 try to conserve poultry manure and 

 apply it on tha land. But there can be 

 no doubt that this is so as will be evident 

 from a perusal of the interesting Report 

 of the National Poultry Organisation 

 Society of Belgium compiled by Mr. 

 Edward Brown, f.l.s., and published not 

 long ago. Mr. Brown has met with the 

 most noticeable proof of this in what is 

 known as the Oampine Disttict which at 

 one time was an arid, sandy plain, 

 covered with fir-trees and incapable of 

 culti vation. But it appears that poultry- 

 keeping was taken up by the peasants 

 thirty years ago on a somewhat exten- 

 sive scale and by the careful utilisation 

 of the manure produced, much of the 

 land has been so enriched that it has 

 been brought into use for market garden- 

 ing. Signs of prosperity, it is stated, 

 are evident on all sides, both in the 

 appearance of the people and their dwel- 

 lings. The villages have grown consider- 

 ably and Mr. Brown observes that he has 

 not met with, " a more striking instance 

 of the place occupied by poultry in res- 

 pect to increasing the fertility of the soil 

 and advancing the prosperity of the rural 

 population." 



In the Maine Statistical Bulletin No. 

 168, Messrs. Pearl and Surface present 

 some interesting data on certain factors 

 influencing the fertility and hatching 

 of eggs: The correlation between fertility 

 and hatching quality of eggs was numeri- 

 cally determined for two seasons and the 

 authors found that there was a small but 

 sensible correlation between them ; that 

 is to say, in general or on an average, 

 the hen whose eggs run high in fertility 

 will also tend to show a high hatching 

 quality of eggs (percentage of fertile 

 eggs hatched) and vice versa. 



It is also shown that the individuality 

 of the female bird is a very important 

 factor in the determination of the ferti- 

 lity of eggs. Different individual females 



have characteristic degrees of fertility 

 of their eggs, independent (within limits) 

 of the character of the male bird with 

 which they are mated. This fact empha- 

 sises the importance to the breeder of 

 trap-nesting through the breeding season 

 at least. Again a study of inheritance 

 of fertility and of hatching quality bet- 

 ween mother and daughter, father and 

 daughter and between sisters showed 

 that there was no evidence that the char- 

 acter, 'fertility of eggs' is in any degree 

 inherited. On the other hand, the charac- 

 ter, 'hatching quality of eggs' is to a very 

 large extent defiuently inherited in the 

 female bird and apparently also in the 

 male line. 



Taking all the results of the paper 

 together it is evident that fertility and 

 hatching quality of eggs are very differ- 

 ent characters. While there are great 

 individual differences among different 

 females in respect to the fertility of 

 their eggs, even when mated to the same 

 male, it still remains the fact that this 

 character as compared with the hatching 

 quality of eggs is to a very large degree 

 influenced by external circumstances. 

 On the other hand, the hatching quality 

 of eggs is an innate constitutional char- 

 acter just as much intrinsic as any 

 other physical character, such as the 

 shape of body or length ot limb. On the 

 whole the data presented in the paper 

 emphasise the importance in practical 

 breeding work of (I) the selection of 

 breeding stock with reference to constitu- 

 tional vigor and vitality, (II) the mainte- 

 nance ot the breeding birds in a vigorous 

 condition by proper methods of housing 

 and feeding, and (III) paying attention 

 to the actual breeding ability of the 

 stock and the exercise of selective breed- 

 ing to improve this character. 



Fowls are sometimes attacked by what 

 is known as the tapeworm disease. At 

 Maryland Station in the United States 

 of America fourteen fowls were recently 

 affected by this disease. Messrs. Gage 

 and Opperman have recorded their ob- 

 servations of the out-ward symptoms 

 and post-mortem findings in a back num- 

 ber of the Maryland Station Bulletin. 

 Nodules were found along the outside 

 walls of the intestinal tract with tape- 

 worms attached at each nodular spot 

 within the intestines. It ia advised that, 



