Live Stock. 45 



If eggs or good table birds are 

 required— that is, good strong table 

 birds — the stock must not be in-bred ; if 

 so, the birds do not fulfil their mission. 

 Those who write articles on in-breeding 

 do a grreat deal more harm to the utility 

 poultry-breeders, as they write that 

 they can in-breed and yet do well- In 

 one way it pleases them, because they 

 need not yet buy fresh male birds, but it 

 is misleading to those who do not kuow 

 any better. 



We will take our readers back to the 

 farmers of twenty years ago, when the 

 whole village would not have fresh 

 blood for years. The system was for 

 farmers ' wives to exchange male birds 

 about every two or three years with 

 each other. 



What was the result ? In many cases 

 they did not breed a chicken until the 

 end of spring, and not many of them 

 before the middle of summer. The 

 simple reason was they could not get a 

 hen to sit before that time. 



We can well remember the time when 

 farmers did not have a single egg for 

 three or four months during the autumn 

 aud winter. (1) Because they in-bred. 

 (2) They bred from mongrel cocks. (3) 

 They made no selection of their stock, 

 partly because they fed them on the 

 very poorest of grain, such that the 

 millers would not grind for their pigs. 



Fortunately, these last few years 

 farmers have treated their fowls dif- 

 ferently. What brought them to do so '? 

 Bad times, and the purchase of fresh 

 blood ; they gave the birds better food, 

 and what has been the outcome of it all ? 

 They have made better prices for their 

 poultry and eggs, and find there is 

 nothing pays better on the farm than 

 poultry. 



Geneial in-breeding with ordinary 

 stock kept for utilitarian purposes is a 

 step backwards, and it means loss and 

 disappointment. 



It must be remembered there are 

 poultry-fanciers who keep birds for 



: [May, 1900. 



show who do not get eggs in winter, and 

 iu many cases they keep a number of 

 mixed birds of all kinds to lay eggs for 

 their own consumption. But when 

 people keep prize birds of the up-to-date 

 utility breeds, they lay eggs all the 

 autumn and winter. 



This is one reason why the Oprington 

 varieties have spread so marvellously 

 fast as show birds. 



We always recommend our readers to 

 take up the newer breeds because of 

 fresh blood having been used, and the 

 introduction of this always means added 

 inactivity to the egg organs- 



When they complain that new varie- 

 ties are cot good layers, it is the fault 

 of those who have handled them. 



There is no specific way to make hens 

 lay. Many things will tend to increase 

 the number of eggs laid. Volumes have 

 been written upon the subject, and each 

 writer lays special stress upon his or her 

 remedy. We cannot go into detail, but 

 will give a list of the help recommended, 

 and our readers can try the ones they 

 think most applicable to their own 

 case :— 



1. Certain birds lay more eggs than 

 others. 



2. Young hens lay better than older 

 ones. 



3. Certain individual hens have the 

 laying capacity more highly deve- 

 loped than others. 



4. Green food tends to make them 

 lay. 



5. So does green bone cut up and 

 mixed with their food. 



6. So does cooked meat. 



7. So does a variety of mixed food. 



8. Red pepper mixed in the food. 



9. Clean water every day. 



10. Clean quarters or hen-houses. 



11. Food given in straw or leaves to 

 make them scratch for it, 



12. Everything that you can do to 

 have them in prime condition 

 and perfect health.— Farmer and 

 Grazier, 



