1 Sxpr., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 283 
Many well-known breeders carefully mark their best laying hens, and breed 
from them only, and there is not the slightest doubt that this is well worth the 
trouble, and ina few years a grand laying strain would be produced. Remember, 
a great deal depends on how you house and feed your chicks. The best: all- 
round food is wheat, and no rubbish—good wheat. Green food of some sort is 
also indispensable ; and bonedust, grit, broken-up oyster-shells, and, better than 
all, “ green bone” help materially to increase the ege yield. Maize should only 
be given occasionally—being too fattening for the hens you rely on for eggs. 
Fresh water, kept in a cool place, must be handy, and never put where the sun 
can warm it. 
Fowls also require a dust-bath ; they will keep themselves clean if you will 
help them, but, if they have nothing, insect pests will soon infest them, and 
gradually your birds will drop away. It is well worth your while oceasionally to 
get a little cotton-waste, soak it well in kerosene, and rub it well in under the 
feathers, particularly about the neck and back of the head. Doa few ata time, 
but do them thoroughly. Clean out their houses regularly, and use lime with 
about a wineglassful of carbolic acid into a bucket of whitewash. Thoroughly 
wash the interior of the poultry-house with this, and also sprinkle it about the 
floor. ‘Then cover with dry earth and ashes. You will thus have a poultry- 
house that you can enter with pleasure, and that your birds can roost in with 
comfort. ‘Their perches should not be more than 2 ‘feet from the ground, and 
should also be kept clean by occasionally washing with kerosene, 
This seems a lot of trouble, no doubt, but you will find yourself amply 
repaid for it by having a healthy stock of poultry, which means profit instead 
of loss. 
In iny next article I will deal with show or exhibition birds. 
The Orchard. 
FRUIT-TREE PRUNING AT WESTBROOK EXPERIMENT FARM. 
By ALBERT H. BENSON, 
In the January number of the Queensland Agricultural Journal for 1898, 
Part 1, Vol. IL, I gave an illustrated description of the principles of fruit-tree 
pruning, especially as regards the training of the young tree for the first three 
seasons; and the photographs, which are reproduced herewith, show how this 
method of pruning has been carried out by me in actual practice at the 
Westbrook and Hermitage Experiment Orchards, which were planted in 1897. 
The illustrations on Plate I. are as follow :— 
1. A “ Gravenstein” apple-tree planted in 1898. This tree, when set out, 
consisted of one straight stem, which was cut back to a height of 20 inches, and 
the four branches shown in the illustration were allowed to develop, all others 
being removed by summer pruning. It will be noted that each of the four 
branches has a firm hold of the main stem, and that there is, therefore, no 
likelihood of splitting. 
2. Shows the same tree, pruned. : 
3. A ‘“ Monroe’s Favourite” apple-tree planted in 1897. This tree way 
treated in a similar manner to No. 2 last year, the height to which it was cut 
back being easily seen in the illustration. he tree made a vigorous growth, 
and was summer-pruned in December last, a small amount of disbudding 
having taken place previously. The effect of the summer pruning is shown by 
the development of fruit spurs, which is taking place along the main branches, 
and by the formation of the tertiary forks , 
