1902.] POULTRY AS AN ADJUNCT OF THE FARM. 219 



very soon you would see lights opening out from the base, 

 and gradually opening up and growing brighter as the tower 

 was lighted toward the top. Then all the buildings on each 

 side of the great court would be lighted up, and soon every- 

 thing would be in full glory and splendor, and one could not 

 help turning away with a feeling of pride and admiration that 

 he was a member of a great nation which could make such 

 a marvelously wonderful display. 



The President. Now we will listen to our next speaker. 

 Dr. Cooper Curtice of Rhode Island, who is to speak to us 

 on " Poultry as an Adjunct of the Farm." 



POULTRY AS AN ADJUNCT OF THE FARM. 

 By Cooper Curtice, 



Biologist, Rhode Island Experiment Station. 



An editorial in the Rural New Yorker of 1896 stated that 

 the value of farm poultry in the United States exceeded two 

 hundred and ninety millions of dollars, a sum far more than 

 twice the production of gold and silver for that year. This 

 value tvas more than three times the amount of the interest 

 on mortgages for the same year. It exceeded the value of 

 either the cotton, wheat, swine, oat, potato, or tobacco crop. 

 May we not be pardoned if we entertain the opinion, in the 

 light of these figures, that poultry ranks as a staple crop rather 

 than in the unimportant role of an adjunct crop popularly 

 assigned to it? Behold, the hen that lays the golden egg is 

 with us, richly repaying for any slight attentions she receives 

 by the blessings she adds to our table, either directly through 

 her products or indirectly through the results of the barter 

 of those products. 



Were the proceeds arising from farm poultry to be de- 

 voted to paying the mortgage interest, a surplus would be 

 left to reduce the principal or meet the taxes. Since the mort- 

 gages still exist and the mortgagors still have to depend on 

 the dividends from the staple crops for paying the interest, 

 we may infer that the poultry money is absorbed otherwise; 

 and is it not a well-known fact that mankind is not only de- 

 pendent on poultry for a portion of their daily bread, but 



