62 
The Australasian Book of Poultry. 
or any commercial purposes. There are plenty of places where the women and children own and run the 
Poultry for their own advantage, and to make what they can out of them, the farmer conceding them this 
privilege, on the understanding that they buy their fal-lals out of the proceeds ; and on many places lie 
carries in the eggs and young birds for market for the wife. Asked if he is doing well, he will tell you, 
' Nothing at all ; wouldn't come to town, only I bring in a few dozen eggs and a pair or two of cockerels for 
the missus.' But he does not tell you that these same few dozen eggs and pair or two of cockerels each 
week are keeping the household in groceries and butcher's meat, and that without them, he would be forced 
to sell horse, cart, or tools to keep the bills paid. The above has been the most familiar aspect of the 
Poultry question hitherto in Queensland ; but I am glad to say that of late there has been gradually 
developing a much greater interest and personal understanding among farmers of the capabilities and 
possibilities of the Poultry industry in Queensland. They are at last awakening to the fact that the colony 
possesses a climate and natural advantages second to none in the world for the breeding and raising of all 
varieties of Poultry, and by tiie time we are five years older I quite expect to see larger and finer Poultry 
Farms in Queensland than are to be found to-day in the Mother Colony of N.S.W. For, with the climate 
we have, and the many advantages such a climate carries with it, the industry must go ahead. It only wants 
a few men with a little capital, and some knowledge of the business, to start in each district to give it an 
impetus, and make others who have but small capital take it up. There is no fortune in Poultry, no matter 
how you work it, or to which branch you devote your energies ; even if you can afford to go in for all, you 
cati't make a fortune^ and it is as well for every one to know and understand this at the outset. But how 
many industries can one point to and say, 'There is a fortune in that business?' — unless it is something 
new, and likely to be of immense value to mankind at large. Of course, one can say, ' Well, eggs are 
universally used, and necessary in many more ways than for domestic purposes, and Poultry is a universally 
used diet.' So they are : but in all industries where the profits arc so small, as in the production of fowls 
and eggs, and the need so common, every household makes an effort to supply itself, and fortunes even to 
the largest producers are impossible. The eggs at the lowest rate cost yd. per dozen to produce, and if a 
hen is kept for the purpose of laying eggs only, and selling them at so much per dozen, she is worth again, 
at the least, about iis. Though if you work it out to finality — by which I mean calculating that all the eggs 
are hatched, and produce other hens, who also lay and re-produce their species — the hen is quite the most 
profitable of live stock, and the sum tots up to something like ^^do per hen. I forget the exact figures, but 
it is just as impossible for one to reckon on one's profits on this scale as it is to reckon on any other 
speculation that works out with charming ease and brilliancy on paper. If the hen increased steadily at the 
rate which appears legitimate, the world would very soon be full of hens. But, though there is no fortune in 
Poultry Farming, there may be, and there is, a good living in it for the man or woman who is content to earn 
it in pence and shillings instead of pounds, and who will look closely after the small matters. There is no 
business that I know of so made up and so dependent on little details as Poultry, whether kept for fancy or 
market purposes. For instance, a dirty fowl-house may cost you the loss of half a dozen pure-bred chickens. 
Neglecting to light the lamp in the foster mother for one or two nights may put your batch of pullets back 
from laying a fortnight or three weeks. The want of a few well-placed nests may mean the loss of eggs. 
These are but a few of the small things on which the success of the undertaking may be either 
made or marred. The Poultry Farmer of all men should be a man of method, precision, and 
regularity. On these much depends. I think I may, without fear of contradiction, take credit to myself for 
having done much to encourage and advance the industry in this Colony. It is something like fifteen years 
since my first article appeared in the Qiiccnslander, and in which I offered to assist with advice any Poultry 
keepers who liked to write to me. For some months letters came with queries at long intervals, and not 
more than two or three per month, but gradually, as the Poultry column grew in favour, and my articles were 
copied into other newspapers, letters became more numerous, till at the present time the average is something 
like nine letters per week on matters connected with Poultry. Many of these correspondents are 
mere children, or young people between the ages of i? and 20, several of whom I started myself with 
