294 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE OfE. Doc. 



POULTRY RAISING. 



BY JOHN J. PATTERSON, JR., Mifflintoivn, Pa. 



READ AT McALlSTERVILLE INSTITUTE, JUNIATA CO., JAN. 20, 1901. 



• I have beei ivited to address you upon a subject that is fast 

 gaining emiuencv among our other business enterprises. The old hen 

 aud her brood in years gone by, would not have attracted capital 

 to the extent that she does to-day. I could name you poultry plants, 

 +hat are in operation at the present time, which have cost from $1,000 

 «o |oO,000. Gentlemen, the poultry business is in its infancy. One 

 hfis only to stop and think of our enormous population, and with our 

 new possessions, to find the cause of this new interest in the hen. 

 We have over 70,000,000 of people to feed and they must be fed every 

 day in the year. I have seen it stated that a certain man in New 

 York City made a trip, at the noon hour down Broadway, where 

 there was a very large force of men at work, and he found 95 per 

 cent, of the dinner buckets contained from two to six eggs. The egg 

 is to the poor man what the porter-house or sirloin steak is to the 

 rich. 



In order to show you what a small thing (as some call it) our 

 poultry industry is, I will quote you some figures taken from the 

 United States Statistics for the year 1897. There were in this 

 country, about 375,000,000 chickens, and 40,000,000 other fowls, such 

 as ducks, geese and turkeys. During that year 14,400,000,000 hen 

 eggs \.ere laid. The export price at New York averaged fifteen cents 

 per dozen, which makes the value of the egg crop $165,000,000. 

 Poultry sold as meat, as broilers, boilers and bakers, brought |125,- 

 000,000 more, making the total hen crop, at a very conservative esti- 

 mate, $290,000,000 or the annual consumption of a liitle over $4.00 

 worth of poultry and eggs for every man, woman and child in the 

 United States. Now^ you will readily see what a business "biddy" 

 has done and it is rapidly increasing. 



In order to give you a more comprehensive understanding of the 

 poultry industry, I will quote you some figures for the year 1897: 



