22 MARCH 1946, Page 16

Effects of a Belated Winter

What odd effects the dose of belated winter has produced! The cold has not prevented poultry from laying, but it has discouraged hens from wanting to sit. Seldom was such a f,eneral, such a vain chase for broody hens. This is, perhaps, more general and more vain in north-west England than elsewhere. Farmers there realise, as southern farmers do not, that no bird is so self-supporting, so cheap to feed as the goose ; and the geese have been laying when no hen can be found to hatch out goslings. And the earlier these, as other poultry, can be hatched, the better.