1 May, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 357 
matter, against this very erroneous idea. For there is no doubt about it that 
the true fancier—that is, the man who has devoted his time, energy, and 
experience to the producing and making known the best breeds and ‘strains 
and crosses for the table or laying purposes—is and has been a benefactor to: 
the poultry man. 
In-breeding is the bane of the poultry yard, and the sight presented to 
one who goes about at all among the farmers and various other places where 
fowls are reared anywhere in Tasmania cannot fail to be impressed with the 
extent to which this suicidal policy is carried on. It can only.resultin ultimate | 
loss, for weak stock are sure to follow this method, fowls that are no use at all 
for table, and that will not lay sufficient eggs to pay for their own food; weeds. 
in every respect, that’s what they are. 
Well, the true fancier is the man that helps one out of this difficulty by 
supplying good well-bred stock, either cocks or hens, and a change of blood is 
necessary every yearat least. This is his mission, and if his aid were sought 
a little oftener than it is, I know what the result would be. I have kept 
mongrels and purebreds, and I know which have paid me. 
Tt was only last week a friend, whom I had advised to purchase some good 
stock, but who declined because the price was a little high, so he then thought,. 
acknowledged his error, and lamented his loss of time, energy, money, and 
patience in looking after and feeding a lot of mongrels he had ‘‘ picked up 
cheap.” Said he: “ Mine have been eating their heads off ever since I bought 
them, with no beneficial result to me, while yours have been laying all the 
time. For the future I’ll buy good stock.” This is what it will pay everyone 
every time to do. y 
Mind, I don’t say any one word in defence of those insane individuals whose: 
sole mission is to breed so as to obtain a certain colour, or lobe, or leg, or the 
dozen and one fancy points so dear, to the detriment of shape, weight, and 
good laying qualities. These deserve to be driven from every showroom in 
which they exhibit, as tricksters and opponents of all that is desirable to be 
obtained by poultrymen. But the true fancier—that is, the man who 
breeds the best kinds only, and makes a study of his business for utility’s 
sake, and with the object of making his and everybody elsc’s business in the 
oultry line a profitable one—this is the man who should be supported, and 
whom I will lift my voice and use my pen in defending every time as the real — 
friend of the farmer and cottar generally, and the only true fancier. He 
should be encouraged, for he deserves to be, and is the man from whom stock 
should be bought. There are good breeders now in the colony who work solely 
on the line of utility, and their success should be to the farmers’ benefit as well 
as to their own. } ae 
We all know what sort of stock the farmer or dairyman gets by breeding 
from mongrel bulls and cows of the same strain year after year—weeds. When 
he wants to change his methods and his strain, and make his business as a. 
dairyman pay, he goes to the man who has made a study of breeding his stock 
for their milking and butter-producing qualities, pays his price, and takes his 
choice, with the result that he benefits in the progeny raised subsequently, and. 
does not usually forget the lesson he has thus learned. He does not for one 
instant think of calling the breeder of the special strain of cattle, from whom 
he has made his purchase, a faddist, for the benefit he has gained isin itself 
too patent and quite sufficient to show him that hitherto he ‘had been working 
on unprofitable lines. 
If this be true in regard to dairying, and we all know that it is, why 
should it not be true also in regard to poultry-raising? And I know that it 
js. If the one breeder is nota faddist, why should the other be called one ? 
Pure stock, or stock specially bred for their separate qualities, are necessary to 
both industries, and the man who breeds them is just as much a benefactor of 
the one calling as the other. ‘Therefore if any reader of these “ Notes” should 
be unfortunate enough to possess a yardful of mongrels, the keeping of which 
is almost always a dead loss, take the advice of one who has gained experience 
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