20 PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 



poultry products; the multitude of men who prepare 

 poultry for market and the army of packers, shippers 

 and distributors of poultry products. The express com- 

 panies, railways, steamboats and other transportation 

 agencies do an enormous and very profitable business 

 as carriers of poultry and poultry productions. The 

 rapid methods of modern transportation have revolu- 

 tionized poultry keeping as an industry. The limita- 

 tions of the local demand have little influence on the 

 supply. A large surplus of eggs, fowls or feathers in 

 any locality is quickly shipped to other points where 

 there is demand for them or sent to storage houses 

 for preservation until wanted. 



The great city markets, where dressed poultry and 

 eggs are on sale, show in an interesting and convincing 

 manner the importance and popularity of poultry pro- 

 ducts as food for the people. Probably, however, one- 

 half of the total product of the flocks is consumed in 

 the homes of the producers. 



The extent of the poultry industry is also indicated 

 by the present development of allied branches of busi- 

 ness, such as the manufacture and sale of incubators, 

 brooders, trap-nests, shipping and exhibition coops, port- 

 able hen houses, furnishings, poultry fences, shell, grits, 

 caponizing intruments, etc. There are more than one 

 hundred different kinds of incubators and brooders made. 

 The extensive advertisements of poultry supplies 

 and appliances are an emphatic indication of the size 

 of the business. 



The number, size and activity of the poultry asso- 

 ciations and specialty clubs bear witness to the interest 

 taken in pure-bred fowls. The poultry exhibitions of- 

 fer numberless striking object lessons as to the multi- 

 tudes of fanciers and their flocks. 



The poultry books published, the poultry bulletins 

 issued by the United States government a,nd state ex- 

 periment stations and the host of poultry periodicals 

 published show something of the importance of the poul- 

 try industry. 



Special poultry schools, poultry courses in the agri- 



