1 Junx, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 447 
3s. per head at the start, and sold out at 2s. 6d. at the close of the year. I also 
fix a common price for roosting the fowls in a wooden house at 30s. for 20 
head, or £2 for 40 head, and the value of the manure at 18d. per head, or 
£1 10s. per ton. The labour question is also dealt with upon the same lines. 
Attendance on each field poultry-house at a distance from home six hours per 
week, and homestead houses at three and a half-hours. Lads’ wages, 11s. per 
week. The above prices are as fair an average as it is possible to fix, to compare 
the true merits of the different birds tested and profits realised. 
The somewhat high average price obtained from the above yield of eggs is 
accounted for by the facts (1) close proximity to a town market; (2) large size 
of eggs; (3) large number laid through the winter months. The cost of 
purchased food, it will be seen, is returned at about 1d. per head per week, but 
this was augmented by certain kitchen refuse which would have been otherwise 
wasted. This scrap refuse from a family of six no doubt much conduced to the 
laying properties of the flock, which attained the high average of 170 eggs per 
head, and this, after deducting 300 eggs as the estimated yield of the ten pullets 
reared, and which laid through the winter. 
I trust that the highly satisfactory profit of 10s. 1d. per head shown by this 
return will encourage many poultry-keepers to forward me their balance-sheet, 
although they may not have kept their stock strictly upon the poultry test 
rules. 
P.S.—The accuracy of the above return may be relied on. The eggs were 
recorded daily, and the invoices of food purchased carefully filed. Let me, 
however, warn enthusiasts who, after reading the above, think that by setting 
up 20 hens they may attain equal success. This may be possible, but is 
highly improbable. A. profit of 5s. per head is seldom exceeded with flocks of 
40 head, although 8s. per head is often realised where only a dozen or so are 
kept under favourable circumstances. 
Now, whether a poultry farm on a large scale will pay or not, we have 
evidence of the remarkable success of a duck farm at Botany, Sydney. _ Those 
who haye visited Botany will recollect that there much of the land is sandy and 
eovered with patches of low scrub. It is on such a site that the duck farm is 
situated. Although only started three or four years ago, the annual output of 
ducks reaches to somewhere about 14,000, and has, we understand, proved to 
be a very remunerative business. The land is divided into paddocks and yards, 
of which latter there are several suited to the various conditions of the business. 
Tn one are collected vast numbers of ducks, whose business is ego-laying. The 
breeding ducks have a quict yard to themselves, whilst the quarrelsome 
Muscoveys live and breed and fight in a spot quite apart from the rest. There 
are many small yards provided for hens which are employed in hatching out 
ducks’ eggs. Fifteen incubators are also kept constantly going, and of course 
“mothers” have to be provided for the young ducklings from the incubator, 
These “mothers” can accommodate some 400 ducklings. From 8,000 to 
10,000 eggs are sent to market every week in addition to those which are 
“set.” The food of the birds consists of greenstuff, bran, pollard, wheat, and 
boiled liver. The export trade is restricted to Aylesburys, which fetch larger 
prices in the London market than Muscoveys. No attempt at starting such a 
farm has, we believe, as yet been made in Queensland. 
SUCCESSFUL COMMERCIAL EGG PRODUCTION. 
Referring again to the report of a year’s work of 20 hens kept under test 
conditions (says the Scottish Harmer), the particulars are well worthy of very 
careful and extended perusal. In striking the balance of profit and loss, we 
think that Mr. De La Bere has erred in some particulars, both for and against 
the fowls. Take, for instance, the charges for poultry-houses and appliances. 
Tt seems to us unfair that the whole cost of 80s. and 10s. should be charged 
-against the one year’s work (if the whole cost is entered), without giving any 
. 
