A Note on the Function of the Gizzard in Fowls by E. T. Halnan, Poultry Nutrition Section, School of Agriculture, Cambridge. Report from the Poultry Nutrition Section. Harper Adams Poultry Journal.

Report of experiments with feeding glass cylinders, ½ in. long and ¼ in. in diameter to fowls. After few days the cylinders were broken. In all the cases referred to, grit was present in the gizzard and the birds were all adults. It was thought desirable to ascertain whether the gizzards of younger birds were equally efficient and whether this crushing of glass beads was possible in the absence of grit. For this purpose chicks were reared under as near grit free conditions as possible.

The Genetics of the Domestic Fowl. Memoirs of the Anikowo Genetical Station, 1926, Abstracted by L. C. Dunn, Storrs Agr. Exp. Station from the translation of B. F. Glessing. Journal of Heredity, Organ of the American Genetic Association, Nov. 1928 and March 1929.

Contents:

The nomenclature of the Genes, A Short Description of the Genes of the Domestic Hen, The Genestics of Color, Classification of the Genes, The Genetics of Leg Feathering, Types of Leg Feathering, Inheritance of Heel Tufts, Inheritance of Recessive Leg Feathering (Pavloff type) Inheritance of 1002 Type Leg Feathering, Dominant Leg Feathering (Faverolle Type), Pavloff-Faverolle Cross, Leg Feathering in Orloffs, Leg Feathering in a Family of Bantams, Leg Feathering among Progeny of Male 612, Leg Feathering in Brahma Wyandotte Cross.

Passaic Egg-Laying Contest introduces novel type Layout. New Jersey Agriculture, December, 1928.

Built in the form of three long laying houses that are connected at one end by an enclosed walk, the new Passaic County Egg-Laying Contest buildings at Paterson are a departure from the usual housing facilities of such projects. They are called the only contest buildings of their kind.

New Pullorum (B. W. D.) Test Easy to Use on Breeders. Poultry Tribune for December, 1929.

Farmers and breeders who have desired to test their flocks for pullorum disease (B. W. D.), but have delayed because of the expense and time required by the agglutination test, may find their way out in the new simplified form of this test which has been developed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Animal Breeding Research Department. The University, Edinburgh. Seventh Annual Report of the Director for the year April 1st 1926 to March 31st 1927.

The function of the department.

To secure and democratise knowledge concerning the physiology of reproduction and of inheritance with special reference to the animals of economic importance.

The Rudimental Copulatory Organ of the Male Domestic Fowl by Professor Dr. Kiyvoshi Masui, Assistant Professor, Agricultural Department, Tokyo Imperial University, Japan. The South African Poultry Magazine, May, 1929.

The male copulatory organ of the duck has already been described by many authors, but, as far as we are aware, none of the investigators have shown the existence of the same organ in the domestic fowl.

Protein Changes in Fish Meal when fat has been extracted by trichlorethylen by Dr. J. C. de Ruyter de Wildt. Rijkslandbouwproefstation, Hoorn, Holland, 1929.

In the former communication it was shown that when the fat is extracted from fish meal by trichlorethylen, the feeding value of the fish meal has been decreased and we have started the idea that not only the diminution of the fat content has caused this decrease, but perhaps a protein change too.

Regulatory Work with Bacillary White Diarrhea by B. T. Simms, Corvallis, Oregon Agricultural College Experiment Station. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Vol. 27, 1929, p. 359.

Nearly 200.000 samples were collected during the 1927–28 testing season. An average of 600 samples collected in a day by a bleeder was considered good. In the laboratory about 3000–3500 samples could be handled by one person in a day.

Fish-meal and Meatmeal. The South African Poultry Magazine, Nov. '28. Department of Agriculture. Interesting feeding experiments with poultry.

On the poultry section of the Potcheftroom School of Agriculture two exceptionally interesting and instructive experiments are being conducted. The values of meat-meal and fish-meal as foodstuffs for poultry are being determined. The meat-meal feeding experiment has been in progress since November, 1927, and the egg-production for the last five months is as follows:

20 per cent, meat-meal fed, 295 eggs laid; 12½ per cent. meat-meal fed, 235 eggs laid; 5 per cent. meat-meal fed, 197 eggs laid; 0 p. cent. meat-meal fed, 175 eggs laid. During the period November, 1927, to August, 1928, the egg production was 1,144, 1,030, 936 and 954 respectively. It is, however, only during the winter months that the suitability of a foodstuff actually becomes apparent. The figures show clearly that meat-meal is an essential constituent of the ration during this period. Of course, all the fowls received sufficient quantities of the respective rations. This experiment, and the information obtained in other places, indicate that the best balanced ration is that which ontains about 12½ per cent, meat-meal.

Raising Chicks in Batteries by W. C. Thompson, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, New Brunswick, N. J. The Harper Adams Utility Poultry Journal, 1929, p. 307.

To summarize concerning battery rearing is to say that:

1. 1. A room approximately 12ft. by 14ft. in size will accommodate a battery large enough to handle nearly two thousand chicks, an economy in housing provision for chick rearing.

2. 2. One man can satisfactorily take care of from four to five times as many chicks by battery methods as by former methods.

3. 3. The chicks are surrounded by strictest possible sanitation, and B.W.D. and coccidiosis have little chance to kill chicks.

4. 4. The chicks have nothing else to do but eat and grow, and yet they get sufficient exercise to enable them to make proper growth.

5. 5. The scheme is especially convenient for the handling of chicks during their first four weeks, until the worst danger period is passed, and is a splendid answer to the handling of surplus male chicks.

6. 6. The pullets are well started in the batteries and are finished under normal conditions.

7. 7. The batteries must be kept fairly darkened, to keep down any tendency to toe...picking, etc.

The Secretion of Uric Acid by the Fowl, by O. S. Gibbs, Physiological Abstracts, 1929, p. 302.

The bird's kidney can be perfused through the urether. Fluids enter the kidney as high as Bowman's Capsule. The pressure required is low. True selective absorption of such fluids was not demonstrated. After a short time the uric asid secreting mechanism becomes injured. It is inferred therefore that tubular absorption is not normal, though it can occur. The secretion pressure in the fowl's kidney is 10-20 c.M. of water. It is considered that uric acid is actively secreted by the bird's kidney, while water is probably filtered off by the glomeruly.

Poultry Industry in Belgium. L'Industrie Avicole by M. Frateur. University of Louvain, Journal de la Société Centrale d'Agriculture de Belgique 1928, p. 162.

Description of: Economic importance of the poultry industry, egg-consumption, export of eggs, poultry-industry before and after the war, conservation of eggs; the future of the industry.