CORRESPONDENCE.

A NEW METHOD OF OBTAINING NEW-LAID EGGS.

[TO THE EDITOR or Tax "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—About a year ago, on a large farm of 600 acres situated near Birmingham, I saw for the first time a now and revolu- tionary method of obtaining new-laid eggs. The farm is well managed, and the farmers who farm it have lived there for several generations, and they are an exceptionally smart set of business men. Their farming operations are mixed, and every department is well and skilfully worked. In addition to the usual milk production and stock-rearing, they do a large milk- bottling business for the Birmingham hospitals and invalid establishments. They also grow a large quantity of eating and preserving fruit. They are extensive poultry farmers, having adopted the trap-nest system of recording the number of eggs that each bird lays, with the result that they have established a strain of White Wyandottes which are noted for the number of eggs laid during the year. For birds and eggs of this strain they obtain fancy prices. I just mention these few facts to prove that what I am about to relate is being clone, not as a hobby by playful amateurs, but by a bard-headed, skilful farming family who have had a wide and lengthy experience in profitable poultry keeping.

On the occasion of my visit I saw 300 White Wyandottes confined in a scratching shed which was 100 feet long and 24 feet in width. The two ends and back of the shed were boarded un with creosoted tongued and grooved boards. The front and open side, which faced to the south, was boarded np to a height of two feet from the ground, while the remainder of the front was filled in with a small mesh wire, which admitted into the house a plentiful supply of fresh air and sunlight, especially admitting all the winter sun. The roof was constructed of corrugated iron, which was matchboarded underneath. The height of the roof from the ground at the back of the shed was five feet, and it sloped up to a, height of six feet six inches in front. The roof was so constructed that it sloped down a little distance over the front of the shed, and this sheltered the inside from much of the driving rain, and what little rain did enter only entered the shed a short distance of three or four feet and was dried up quickly during the intervals of sunshine. As the width of this shed is twenty-four feet, the birds have plenty of room at the back of the shed to find shelter from any rain that may find its way into the house. I can see now very clearly that one of the great mistakes in almost all our open-fronted poultry houses is that they are too long in proportion to their width. The wider the house, the more protection from rain and wind can the birds obtain.

At the back of the shed, and running from one end to the other for the birds to roost on, there ran it single perch. This perch was two feet six inches high from the ground, and directly underneath the perch and four inches below it there ran a dropping board to receive the droppings of the birds when they were at roost.

The whole of the floor area was covered several inches thick with short cut straw and chaff. This allowed plenty of loose material to be raked over the grain food, thus compelling the birds to take scratching exercise when searching for their grain.

To this shed was attached two small arable fields : one field is cultivated and cropped, while the other field is occupied by the birds, the result being that the birds every few mouths have a change of land, and this change is beneficial to the health of the birds and adds to the fertility of the soil. The birds are only let out in fine weather. In wet, windy, and very cold weather they are kept confined in the shed.

I saw this system at work in the summer of last year, and it so revolutionized my ideas of keeping poultry that I must say that I was sceptical of its success. I am now told that the egg-production and health of the birds during the winter have been quite as satisfactory as any other methods of keeping poultry that these farmers have tried during their •lengthy experience. The idea originated from America, where it has been pronounced a success.

A. friend of mine, with the rare gift of making poultry. keeping a commercial success, has during the last winter adopted the same method. His poultry house is somewhat smaller, being over forty-two feet long and sixteen feet wide, and it has housed during this last winter 100 White Wyandottes. My friend having only two acres of land cannot give his birds the benefit of a turn-out, but has kept them confined to the shed; and yet, notwithstanding, the health.

of the birds and the winter production of eggs have been antis.

factory—so satisfactory have they been that he has decided to abolish all the small houses and runs, and in their place adopt the large scratching shed principle. The material for building the scratching shed cost him £10, and being a handy man and a prodigious worker he erected the shed himself. " Think," he said to me when explaining the advantageous point of the system—" think of the saving of labour in running about. Instead of having these 100 bircds dotted about in colonies of, say, fifteen to twenty birds in a colony I have all the birds confined under one roof."

On discussing and thinking over this method of keeping poultry, I saw certain points very clearly, if such a system is to be made a success. It necessitates the most scrupulous cleanliness, unremitting attention, and a scientific method of regular feeding with articles of a first-rate quality.

The inside of the house is sprayed with a limo and paraffin mixture every few weeks (creosoting would be better, I think).

The dropping boards are swept down every morning, and the scratching litter is well raked over. Fresh water is given three times per diem. Plenty of green food and grit, some meat food, ground bones, and oyster shells are given. The morning meal is scientifically mixed, and the birds during the day are kept fairly well occupied amidst the litter in searching for the very small grains, a little of which is buried in the litter three or four times per diem. The great point is to keep the birds well occupied and thoroughly healthy, removing at once any bird that shows the slightest sign of ill health, and to feed them so that the birds do not get over-fat, but to feed them so that they develop a strong, wiry condition—a condition which will enable them to stand the strain on their con. stitution that a heavy egg-yield demands. The earth which constitutes the ground of the house is removed every three months to the depth of one spade, and it is replaced by fresh. earth which has been mixed with a little lime.

The principle amongst these up-to-date poultry keepers for egg-production is to get rid of the sitting hens, and in their place to substitute the incubator and fireless brooder, the large sheds and small fattening pens, the small fatten. lug pen to prepare for market all birds over two years old, or before they haVe come to their second moult;—, The - egg- 'production of birds that are over two years old falls off considerably.

• From the experiences I have slowly gathered on my estate and elsewhere I am sure that in the great majority of cases poultry-keeping by farmers, smallholders, and cottagers is an -unprofitable undertaking.

The average nondescript hen lays from sixty to eighty eggs per annum. The egg-laying experiments have taught us that every bird must lay eighty eggs over the year to pay for its keep, and the eggs must average in price one penny each. Birds kept in these large sheds have laid on an average 120 to 130 eggs each bird per annum.

From a commercial point of view, unless the poultry industry is worked with tireless industry, skill, and knowledge, and conducted on sound business methods and principles, it had better be left alone.—I am, Sir, &c., H. B. M. Bucnawa.w.

Hales, Market Drayton.