2 Farm Poultry 



food. So general is the consumption of fowls and 

 of poultry products that some of them are found 

 among the constituents of almost every well-pre- 

 pared meal. As a large proportion of the poul- 

 try products go directly to supply the daily wants 

 of the producers' families, it is impossible to as- 

 certain with any degree of accuracy the amount 

 thus consumed. Very few records are kept by 

 the producers of either the fowls or eggs thus 

 consumed, and whenever statements are made for 

 the census-taker or others, the aggregate is much 

 more likely to be underestimated than exagger- 

 ated. Consequently published data are likely to 

 be more or less misleading, and to give far too 

 low a value to the industry. 



The United States Census Report for 1890 

 gives the number of fowls and eggs produced 

 "on farms only" as follows: 



Chickens 258,871,125 



Turkeys ' 10,758,060 



Geese 8,440,175 



Ducks 7,544,080 



Dozens of eggs 819,722,916 



If the value of the chickens be estimated at 

 forty cents, the turkeys and geese at sixty cents 

 and the ducks at forty-five cents each, the total 

 amount of the three will equal $118,459,824. If 

 to this is added an estimated value of the eggs at 

 fifteen cents per dozen, which is more than three 



