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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
August  24,  1899. 
quick  road  to  affluence.  Given  a  small  capital,  a  bit  of  land,  and  a 
little  irregular  attendance,  and  the  thing  would  be  done.  It  is  a 
great  reproach  to  us  as  a  nation  that  we  import  so  many  eggs. 
Well,  that  may  be  so,  but  would  the  foreigner  send  us  his  eges  if 
he  could  meet  a  better  market  at  home  ?  He  can  raise  eggs  and 
pay  carriage  and  make  a  profit  where  we  cannot.  We  cannot  afford 
to  sell  our  eggs  at  the  price  that  sati-fies  him. 
As  a  rule  we  find  that  large  undertakings  pay  best,  amalgamation 
in  most  things  is  desirable;  but  those  who  have  tried  to  farm  poukry 
on  a  large  scale  have  met  with  woeful  disappointment.  Poultry  is 
live  stock,  and  live  stock  eminently  susceptib’e  to  vitiated  surround¬ 
ings.  People  have  got  an  idea  that  given  a  run  it  does  not  matter 
how  that  run  maybe  crowd*  d.  No  farmer  can  carry  more  than  a 
certain  number  of  sheep  per  acre;  if  he  exceeds  that  number  Nature 
steps  in,  restores  the  balance  by  removing  bv  death  the  extra  heads. 
It  has  been  tried  over  and  over  again.  Land  gets  tainted,  and  once 
tainted  is  as  deadly  poison. 
It  is  just  the  same  with  fowls ;  the  numbers  must  be  kept 
strictly  limited ;  the  ground  must  be  constantly  changed,  or  the 
results  are  painful.  There  is  not  a  more  unpleasant  spectacle  than 
an  overcrowded  fowl-yard.  Keep  fowls  by  all  means,  but  give  them 
plenty  of  room.  If  you  occupy  a  large  holding  you  will  have  no 
difficulty  ;  you  must  divide  your  stock  in  small  detachments,  and 
take  them  out  to  the  fields  in  movable  huts.  This  necessitates 
more  labour,  but  it  insures  good  health  and  prolific  birds.  Stock 
rather  under  than  over;  keep  as  few  as  possible  on  the  homestead. 
There  is  on  and  about  farm  premises  a  fair  amount  of  food  which 
would  be  wasted  if  it  were  not  for  the  fowls,  but  it  is  very  easy 
to  over-estimate  that  quantity.  Another  well-known  fallacy  is  that 
anything  will  do  for  fowls.  But  the  anything  must  be  something* 
and  that  something  sound  and  good  of  its  kind.  The  fowls  that 
are  afield  stand  a  better  chance  of  what  one  might  call  natural  food 
than  the  fowls  at  home. 
On  grass  land  there  are  insects,  worms  and  grubs  innumerable,  and 
no  fowl  can  keep  in  good  health  without  exercise,  and  the  hunting 
down  of  these  things  forms  capital  exercise.  There  is  a  habit  we  would 
much  deprecate,  and  that  is  the  custom  of  feeding  poultry  day  by  day 
in  exactly  the  same  place,  and  that  place  is  as  near  the  house  where 
the  grain  sack  is  kept  as  possible.  It  is  only  an  interested  person  who 
will  be  at  the  trouble  of  carrying  the  daily  grain  rations  further  afield. 
You  would  not  like  a  dirty  tablecloth  week  after  week,  and  your 
habits  are  cleanly.  If  the  feeding  is  on  grass,  the  benefit  is  twofold; 
the  fowls  are  fed  wholesomely,  and  the  land  is  more  equally  tilled. 
Fowl  manure  is  of  value,  but  it  wants  spreading.  Why  not  let  the 
fowls  do  the  spreading  themselves  ?  It  is  no  use  keeping  old  favourites 
— the  productive  time  of  fowls  is  short.  When  a  fowl  ceases  to  con¬ 
tribute  her  proper  quota  to  the  egg  basket,  remove  by  “  happy 
despatch.” 
If  fowls  are  to  thrive,  not  only  must  they  be  uncrowded  in  their 
runs,  led  on  good  food,  but  they  must  be  personally  clean — that  is,  free 
from  parasites.  No  animal  can  thrive  when  its  skin  is  in  a  constant 
state  of  irritation,  and  a  properly  managed  poultry  yard  should  be 
practically  free  from  such  nuisances.  Plenty  of  limewasb,  plenty  of 
dust  baths,  plenty  of  harmless  disinfecting  powders.  How  a  fowl  does 
enjoy  a  good  scratch  in  a  dust  bole  !  A  fowl  is  not  naturally  dirty; 
poor  things,  they  often  have  no  chance  at  all  for  a  good  cleansing ; 
they  do  not  ask  for  anything  costly,  and  they  well  repay  you  for  your 
extra  trouble. 
It  is  no  use  looking  for  Figs  on  Thistles,  and  it  is  no  use  trying  to 
get  good  fowls  if  your  original  stock  is  not  of  the  right  kind.  Some¬ 
thing  healthy,  something  vigorous.  One  man  swears  by  one  breed, 
one  by  another,  and  some  of  the  best  cross-bred  are  the  boast  of  another. 
Karly  maturity,  either  for  the  market  or  as  egg  producers,  is  what 
must  be  aimed  at,  it  does  not  pay  to  have  stock  too  long  on  hand. 
Small  profits  and  quick  returns.  As  soon  as  a  fowl  is  marketable  let 
it  go.  We  do  not  say  there  are  not  some  secrets  about  dressing  the 
said  fowls.  It  is  wonderful  what  a  little  quite  honest  manipulation 
will  do,  and  a  bird  that  looks  very  leggy  and  shapeless  when  the  feathers 
are  off,  may,  carefully  trussed,  be  a  very  presentavle  cmnture.  It  is 
quite  allowable  to  make  the  best  of  the  raw  material,  but  it  is  an  art. 
Perhaps  of  all  kin^s  of  pou'try  ducks  bring  the  quickest  returns. 
Get  them  once  fairly  on  their  legs,  they  take  so  kindly  to  food  that 
they  are  soon  ready  as  food  for  you.  We  have  always  thought 
ducklings  paid  ;  the  more  advanced  birds  we  are  very  doubtful  about. 
If  anyone  thinks  poultry  management  is  child’s  play',  we  should 
like  to  see  them  fairly  set  to  work.  The  work  is  pleasant,  but“it  is 
constant,  and  a  little  judgment  must  be  brought  to  bear.  It  is  not 
work  you  can  take  up  one  day  and  put  down  the  next,  and  it  is  not 
work  that  can  be  trusted  to  a  1  d. 
There  is  another  point  about  which  people  make  great  mistakes. 
They  are,  in  cboosmg  a  sitting  of  egas  for  hatching,  so  apt  to  pick 
out  the  b:ggest.  Our  expefience  is  that  this  is  a  delusion  ;  a  rnedium- 
s’zed  egg  is  much  more  likely  to  be  fertile  than  a  large  one,  and  all 
eggs  for  hatching  purposes  should  be  absolutely  fresh. 
There  is  money  to  be  made  out  of  pure  fancy  breeds ;  but  this  is  a 
monopoly  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  and  these  few  are  experts.  One 
last  word  about  food.  Shun  Indian  corn  except  in  the  smallest 
quantities,  cnange  the  diet  as  much  as  possible,  do  not  forget  the  grit, 
and  see  that  the  water  supply  is  both  clean  and  plentiful.  These  are 
just  a  few  notes  from  Reading,  not  new  ideas,  but  old  ones  that  want 
constantly  hammering  into  the  heads  of  all  poultry  amateurs. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
At  last  have  come  some  heavy  showers,  that  mvy  be  in  time  to  save 
the  root  crop.  For  many  days,  to  nil  appearance,  the  plants  had  “laid 
them  down  to  die.”  A  serious  question  for  the  farmer. 
If  the  roots  and  pastures  are  suffering,  it  has  been  a  fine  time  for 
harvest  work— bright  sunshine  and  pleasant  breeze  ;  and  a  good  deal  of 
Wheat  is  safely  gathered  in.  Nothing  will  tend  more  to  remove  the 
flinty  nature  of  this  year’s  Barley  crop  than  a  good  rain.  The  colour 
may  be  a  little  “off,”  but  the  quality  will  bo  vastly  improved.  Oats 
cannot  be  a  good  crop  this  year.  AH  reports  confirm  our  views,  that  the 
supply  will  be  short ;  the  crops  are  cutting  up  so  light.  We  have  seen 
two  threshed  samples.  The  grain  was  good  and  heavy,  but  the  yield 
deficient — not  more  than  six  quarters,  where  there  ought  to  have  been 
quite  eight. 
Some  of  the  Turnips  ar6  past  praying  for  ;  nine  out  of  every  ten  look 
blue  and  sickly,  the  tap  root  is  entirely  eaten  away  with  grubs,  and  they 
pull  up  at  a  touch.  There  are  only  a  few  side  rootlets  that  are  endeavour¬ 
ing  to  keep  the  plant  alive.  Many  Swedes  are  to  be  seen  with  bushy  tops 
— four  or  five  heads  where  there  ought  only  to  be  one.  This  might  arise 
from  the  use  of  cheap  seed,  but  the  cases  nre  too  many  for  that  theorjv 
and  we  must  look  for  the  cause  elsewhere.  Probably  an  industrious 
insect  has  injured  the  original  lead. 
As  to  Potatoes,  rain  is  needed  for  them  badly  ;  all  the  late  varieties 
must  be  small  unless  moisture  come  soon  and  in  great  quantity  ;  the 
ridges  are  about  dried  through. 
No  wonder  butter  is  getting  dearer,  the  cows  are  almost  entirely 
dependent  on  other  food  than  the  pasture  affords.  Those  cowkeeperj 
who  have  a  few  acres  of  spring  Tares  are  happy  men,  nothing  assists 
the  flow  of  milk  better.  Failing  them  there  is  the  haystack,  but  it  is 
early  days  to  begin  the  hay.  Where  there  is  a  second  Clover  crop  the 
difficulty  of  cow  keep  is  solved.  If  there  is  plenty  to  mow,  mow  itr 
otherwise  the  cows  must  graze.  Care  must  be  taken  that  cows  do  not 
overeat  at  first,  or  it  is  quite  possible  they  may  die  through  their 
gluttony. 
Now  is  a  critical  time  in  the  life  history  of  the  lambs  ;  they  do  not 
exactly  require  change  of  air,  bur  they  do  require  as  much  change  of 
pasture  as  possible.  It  is  not  a  bad  plan  to  let  them  graze  on  the- 
roadsides. 
Women  as  Agriculturists.— Mrs.  Alec  Tweedie,  who  took  an 
active  part  in  the  organisation  of  the  International  Women’s  Congress, 
has  been  interviewed  by  the  “Church  Family  Newspaper ”  on  the  subject 
of  women  as  agriculturists.  She  said  ;  — “When  you  come  to  consider 
that  we  import  from  abroad  some  £23,000,000  worth  of  dairy  produce 
a  year,  it  must  be  evident  that  there  is  an  immense  scope  for  women’s 
labour  in  this  country  to  produce  what  at  present  is  supplied  to  us  by 
the  foreigner.  In  eggs  and  poultry  alone  we  import  some  £5,000,000 
worth  a  year.  Denmark  makes  nearly  nine  millions  a  year  out  of 
England  from  butter,  bacon,  and  eggs,  and  now  Australia  is  becoming  a 
serious  rival  to  Denmark,  notwithstanding  that  her  butter  has  to  accom¬ 
plish  a  voyage  of  12,000  mile9,  and  her  ships  have  to  navigate  the  Red 
Sea  and  Indian  Ocean  at  the  hottest  time  of  the  year.” 
