486 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL gourNAL. [1 Drc., 1897. 
eggs. His plan is to erect “houses” according to his requirements, and to 
enclose with ordinary wire netting, fixed to upright poles in the ground, spaces 
around each, ranging from 98 to 277 square yards. The ground set apart for 
the runs was the rough patches generally found near to the homestead and . 
outbuildings. At the outset he selected fowls that were good layers, such as 
a cross between light and brown Leghorn cocks and the dark Brahma hens. 
They were of course most prolific in March, April, May, June, and July, but 
March and April pullets began laying on 1st October, so that he had a good 
eOpely, of eggs all the year round. The food in the morning consisted of good 
soft meal, with a sprinkling of meat crissel in summer, and in the very cold 
weather Indian meal, which is a heat-producer. In the evening, wheat, buck- 
wheat, dari, or heavy oats were given, separately, not mixed. No maize was 
thrown down, as it is fat-producing and lessens the laying capacity of the hens. 
There was no limit to the supply of water and green stuffs. The results were 
highly satisfactory. The egg year ends on 30th September, and from 
Ist October, 1895, to 80th September, 1896, our poultry farmer had an 
average of 150 fowls, and collected during the year 18,963 eggs, in addition to 
rearing 154: broods of chickens and ducklings. October and November were 
the only two months when the eggs were below 1,000 a month. The best 
results were from two pens, jointly covering 503 square yards, and containing 
fifty birds in the two, which yielded 7,727, or an average, roughly, of 15-4 eggs 
each in the year. For the present year 177 of these fowls have given the grand 
total of 22,270 eggs. The record is as follows:—October (1896), 988; 
November, 1,104; December, 1,608: January (1897), 1,805; February, 1,751; 
March, 3,547; April, 2,941; May, 2,427; June, 2,395 ; July, 2,328; August (to 
the 19th inclusive), 1,396. The balance of receipts over expenditure, taking into 
account the stock in hand, leaves a very substantial interest upon the capital 
invested. The sale-book for 1896 shows that 19,900 eggs, 444 hens, and 261 duck- 
lings were sold. The eggs for 1895-6 realised a fraction over 1d. apiece, while 
the 19,900 were a trifle under. Poultry-keepers ought not to sell March and 
April (spring) pullets, as many farmers do, for they lay in winter, when eggs are 
very scarce, and consequently fetch high prices. Penning-up fowls is strongly 
recommended, because they cannot stray and lay away from home, the eggs are 
always fresh and quickly gathered, broods are not hatched at the wrong time, 
and it is easy to see if anything is amiss with the birds. The railway com- 
panies haye made some very advantageous arrangements to enable farmers to 
murket their produce, and the writer of the article can, 180 miles from London, 
send eggs here in boxes of ten dozen and upwards at the rate of Id. a dozen 
for carriage. Nor in his view is there any reason why producer and consumer 
should’not far more generally be brought into direct relations. The success to 
be achieved and retained implies that the farmer must in the first place give 
to his efforts very intelligent supervision and personal help, and in the second 
instance make his customers feel that they shall always have from him 
genuinely good and fresh produce.—WMark Lane Express, 
CANNA DISEASE. 
Tux Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information issued from the Royal Gardens, 
Kew, warns Eutopean gardeners to be careful how they import living Ounna 
plants :—“ A dangerous disease by which species of Oanna are quickly de- 
stroyed was first recorded from San Paulo, in Brazil, in 1884, Quite recently, 
an account of the destruction of Cannae, by what proves to be the same fungus 
(Uredo Cannae, Winter), has been received from Mr. J. H. Hart, Superintendent 
of the Botanical Gardens, Trinidad. The diseased leaves are at first thickly 
studded with minute yellowish spots. This appearance is quickly followed by 
blackening and death. The disease does not appear to have reached Europe as 
yet, and great care should be exercised in receiving living plants from the New 
World, as the fungus, which is closely allied to the Hollyhock Rust (Puccinia 
malvacearum), if once introduced, would in all probability, render impossible 
the cultivation of Cannae, for a time at least.” 
