1 Noy. 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 301 
Agriculture, 
FIRST STEPS IN AGRICULTURE. 
THIRD STAGE. 
15rn Lesson. 
By A. J. B. 
I think I need hardly impress upon you the value of Pounrry on THE 
Farm. Every farmer should keep a certiin number of fowls. But how few 
realise the enormous value of the poultry industry to a State as a whole? The 
Americans understand it far better than we Australians. You would scarcely 
credit that the year’s earnings of all the poultry in the United States would 
suffice to buy all the dairy cows in that country with £5,000,000 to spare. 
The poultry earnings of one year would buy all the gold, silver, wool, and 
sheep produced in a year, with the tobacco crop thrown in, and still there 
would be nearly six and a-half million sovereigns left for other speculations. The 
cotton cron of the United States is worth about £51,000,C00 a year; the 
poultry bring in £58,000,000 a year; wheat produces £47,000,0U0 ; pigs 
£37,000,000 ; oats, £32,000,000; and so on. 
I just mention these figures to show how very important is the poultry 
business. You may say that you only keep fifty fowls, which bring you in 
about 3s. a week in eggs. But suppose if 37,000 farmers each keep fifty 
fowls, and each gets 3s a week, that means £4,500 a week, or £234,000 a year 
in hard cash paid to the farmers. What could not farmers do if every year 
they were presented with nearly a quarter of a million sovereigns? And when 
you come to think of it, the money received by the housewife for eges and 
poultry reared on the farm is really a gift, for the fowls are scarcely any 
expense to a farmer except in times of drought. ‘here is so much corn, wheat, 
barley, and other grain scattered about at the various haryest times, so much 
waste green food, &c., that the birds practically keep themselves. Every hen 
which brings ont a dozen chickens makes you a present worth more or less 
money according to the value of the breed. Every turkey hen, duck, or goose 
does the same. Then why not keep fowls ? 
j J do not advise the starting of a poultry farm by itself. Such ventures 
have rarely paid, but, in conjunction with agriculture, a limited number of 
fowls and ducks will put many a pound into your pocket at almost no cost. 
Say you run 100 fowls on a 50-acre farm. They will lay from five to 
six dozen eggs a week for the market, besides more for sitting purposes, and, 
where wheat and maize are grown, these 101) bright-eyed seratchers will find 
the scattered grain and turn into money what otherwise would be ploughed in 
and lost. 
Now, let us suppose that you have decided to keep a flock of poultry. 
The first question for you to determine is whether you will breed for eges or 
for poultry for the market. I should advise you to begin breeding for eges. 
What breed is the best for that purpose? You may at once put aside the 
Thdian game and its crosses even with a laying breed. ~ They are bad layers, 
and the crosses are no better. 
The best layers are the White and Brown Leghorns, Buff Orpingtons, 
Minoreas, White and Silver Wyandottes, and their crosses Leghorn-Minoreas 
and Wyandotte-Leghorns. Plymouth Rock-Leghsrns and Minorca-Lang- 
shans are also excellent layers. A crossbred fowl will answer better than a 
purebred on land which is exposed and cold. 
Always }eep in mind that the cock and hen should be unrelated. There 
are few exceptions to that rule. Be careful to buy only healthy birds. 
Stamina and good condition are all-important. In-and-in breeding should be 
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