Breeding- for Table and Export. 
65 
only feed for the day, consisting of a bullock's liver and about a quart of maize. They are always in good 
hard condition, and for the last fourteen months I have never been without one or two duck eggs every 
morning, though they are too rank or fishy for table use. This season I intend raising a large number, and 
allow them to live principally on the lagoon and adjoining swamps. So far as I am aware, there is not one 
dx(ck farm in Queensland, the difficulty in some parts being the periodical droughts and dry spells, when 
often water has to be carted for human consumption from six to twelve miles. Then, of course, the ducks 
would fare badly, but there are many other parts where a regular sujjply may be depended upon. 
Geese are not kept in great numbers ; this country being essentially a horse and cattle growing country, 
they are objected to on these grounds, such being the excuse offered for their rarity. 
Turkeys do very well in some districts, chiefly round about the vicinity of old goldfields, where they can 
obtain a plentiful supply of quartz grit, but, like other varieties of poultry, they have not been thoroughly tried 
in any but the most southern parts. 
Now that our Agricultural College is approaching a tangible reality, possibly Poultry will receive its 
share of attention. It is quite time that it did so, and that an expert was appointed to go through those 
districts, where there are small selectors who have put all their savings of years into the land, and who are 
vainly struggling on from year to year, in many instances being quite on the verge of starvation. Many of 
these people could and would become Poultry-raisers if they knew how to begin, and what is urgently required 
for this Colony is a Poultry expert, whose duty it would be to inform such people of the best varieties to take 
up for utility purposes, and show how to make them pay. There is always a large and growing demand for 
Poultry and eggs for local consumption, outside of export possibilities, and even if the market price is a low 
one, the birds and eggs must be produced at a lower. Should a glut in the market arise, then the expert 
could teach the growers how to preserve their eggs and Poultry till a fair price may be obtained. There is a 
decided opening for the drying and smoking of Poultry, as is done in China. The amount of ignorance on 
Poultry matters displayed in some of the communications I receive is ajjpalling, and is, to my mind, direct 
evidence that an expert who could go among the people, advise and teach them, would do incalcuable good 
by quickly resuscitating the languishing state of affairs into which the majority of our smaller selectors and 
farmers have drifted." 
