204. QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1900. | 
HATCHING TURKEYS. 
Aut poultry-breeders recognise the great characteristic of the turkey hen—het 
persistence as a sitter. She will sit on her nest till she starves to death, am 
resorts to many artifices to hide her nest and herself from passers-by. | 
eggs are taken from her, she will still continue to sit, and has not enough sel 
to detect the difference between stones and eggs. Her regular time for sitting 
is about thirty days. When the young birds are hatched, the mother does) 
trouble herself to teach them how to get their living. Unlike the hen she” 
not scratch and call up her brood. They have to forage for themselves. 
best way to get your {turkey chicks to feed quickly is to put two or t 
common hens’ eggs with her own after she has been sitting for ten days. | | 
these young chicks, as soon as they are out of the shell, run about and ick UP 
food—an example which the turkey chicks are not slow to follow. The b® 
place for breeding turkeys is in high scrub lands, where there is abundance | - 
such animal food as turkeys delight in, especially the snails, of which quanti | 
of the shells may be seen about the mound-nests of the tallegalla or scl 
turkey. Low, wet lands are quite unsuitable for turkey-rearing. 
AUSTRALIAN EGGS. 
Towarps the end of October the Agricultural Department exported for hs 
firms in Melbourne 34,400 dozen eggs in the R.M.S. “Himalaya” to Lom 
(says the Australasian of 27th January). They were gathered here in the sen 
of plenty, and reached England shortly before Christmas, when eggs W° 
scarce. Mr. J. M. Sinclair, representative in London of the departm® 
reports that the consignment, which was packed in 1,701 boxes—the Jaret 
shipment which ever left Victoria—arrived in good condition, having P&@ 
carried at a temperature of about 36 degrees. Most of the eggs were p* at 
in pea husks, but, as sufficient of that packing material could not be obtaine® 
the time, a number of the boxes were filled with oat husks. Although all 
eggs on reaching London had a fresh appearance, those packed in the oat va | 
were found to have a peculiar flavour, which was attributed to the pac ne | 
material, the eggs in the pea husks being all that could be desired. It iss a 
by the department that the eggs realised 9s. 6d. and 10s. per “ great hundte 
or practically 1s. a dozen. They were purchased here at about 6d. per 40% | 
to which is to be added 3d. for packing, freezing, freight, &c., so that there ™ 
a fair margin of profit. Next season, if there is a likelihood of eggs be at 
plentiful and shipments being made, care will be taken to provide a su “A t 
quantity of pea husks for packing. ‘The experience gained with this consigo™ 
will be serviceable to the department in view of any future shipments. 
The Orchard. 
FIGS. 
Y 
Amonest the exotic fruits grown in Queensland none is so much neglected 48 th 
fig. Why this should be so is not quite clear, unless the idea has become ! i 
that without caprification figs will not prove a success. This is a mistaken!) | 
In the district around Smyrna, the great fig-exporting emporium of the Lev’ ¢ 
the figs are not, as is generally supposed, inoculated artificially, but string 
wild figs are hung on to each tree, in the belief that the cynip fly, which isfo e 
in large numbers in the wild fig, is set free to impregnate and fertilise fet 
fruiting fig. There does not appear to be an absolute necessity for this, 3° 
