366 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Ocr., 1899. 
surely worth a prize at our dog and poultry show. These ducks cross well 
with Rouen or Pekin, and give a much fuller-breasted bird for table. Their 
eggs have not the strong flavour 80 noticeable in Pekins. ‘Another great 
advantage in breeding these birds is that they are exceedingly hardy and no 
trouble to rear.”’ 
THUNDER AND HATCHING. 
THere is an old superstition that thunder kills the chicks in the shell, and that 
the hen sitting at the time of a heavy thunderstorm is not likely to bring forth 
any young. How the belief originated we cannot understand, yet it has credence 
all over the world. We made a number of tests in this direction, at one time 
having 15 hens sitting when a heavy thundershower came up. Tt fairly shook 
the building, and we became curious to know what the result would be. Tt 
took from a week to 10 days until all the hatches were due, and yet a better 
lot of ducks we never had. On another occasion we had an incubator full of 
eggs, and they had but a few days more to come out, when a terrible storm 
arose, yet the hatch was a good one.—B.B. in Rural World. 
THE PRESERVATION OF EGGS. 
Tue results of a series of experiments on the preservation of eggs are published 
in the Berliner Markthallen Zeitung. Fresh eggs were treated by twenty 
different methods in June, and after being allowed to remain cight months were 
examined at the end of February. In only three of the methods employed did all 
the eggs remain sound. These were (1) covering with vascline, (2) preserving 
in lime water, (3) preserving in a solution of silicate of potash. The treatment 
with vaseline, however, is a tedious business, submersion in lime water induces 
a disagreeable flavour, and the use of silicate of potash renders the shell 
extremely brittle so that it is expedient to pierce it with a needle before putting 
it into boiling water for cooking. Whichever be the method employed, it is 
desirable that only non-fertile eges should be subjected to the process of 
preservation. Twenty per cent. of the eggs went bad that had been (1) covered 
with lard, (2) preserved in wood ashes, (3) varnished with shellac, (4) put in a 
mixture of boric acid and silicate of potash, or (5) treated with permanganate 
of potash. O€ eggs varnished with silicate of potash or with collodium, 40 per 
cent. turned bad. Ofeges that had been plunged for 12 to 15 seconds in 
boiling water, or immersed in a solution of alum, or in a solution of salicylic 
acid 50 per cent. were found to be bad. Of eggs rubbed with salt, or preserved 
in bran, or covered with paraffin, or treated with a mixture of salicylic acid and 
glycerine, 70 per cent. went bad. Of eggs wrapped in paper 80 per cent., and 
of eggs kept in salt water 100 per cent., were found to be bad. 
FOWLS FOR EXHIBITION. 
By CORINDA, 
Tiere are many who consider breeding birds for show a waste of time, 
but the fact remains that a great many people, including ladies, are extremely 
fond of this hobby, which, for my own part, | think is not only avery interesting 
but at times a remunerative one. ‘The majority of fanciers, however, are 
satisfied if they can make ends meet, and at the same time remain the 
possessors of one or more of the many beautiful varieties of poultry that not 
only afford pleasure to the breeder but are admired by others who, perhaps, 
have not accommodation for them, or cannot spare the time to give them the 
attention that they certainly require. 
