2 ATX EGG FARM. 



An account of "the state of the art," to date, of 

 poultry raising as a separate branch of industry, should 

 include, not merely the progress made, but a forecast of 

 the future. It is only by comparing the present with 

 twenty or thirty years ago, that the magnitude of the 

 great revolutions in industrial affairs can be realized. 

 In general, it may be said that the principal movements 

 have not yet spent their force ; but great' as the changes 

 have been, they will, in the next few years, be vastly 

 intensified. A generation ago a little of almost every 

 principal article of food was raised on every farm, and 

 all consumed within a few miles, comparatively, of 

 where it was produced; while now food production has 

 not only been divided into separate branches, but the 

 main divisions have been split into an almost endless 

 number of subdivisions, and articles are common on 

 every table that have been carried thousands of miles ; 

 this differentiation will go on further and with greater 

 rapidity than has happened already. 



The tendency of the times is to improve transporta- 

 tion, not only by the main railroads, but by the smaller 

 lines and the common roads, a tendency which promotes 

 the selection of the very best locality, as regards soil and 

 climate, for carrying on any particular branch of food 

 production. This choice of the best place, aided by the 

 great modern development of cold storage, and the con- 

 tinually increasing facilities for transportation at reduced 

 rates, will continue to augment the production of poultry 

 in the South Central states, or what may be called the 

 northern tier of the Southern states, and especially the 

 region to the south, southeast and southwest of Kansas 

 City, and enhance the importance of the extensive or 

 colony plan of management best adapted to a mild cli- 

 mate, and which will be described in the following 

 pages, and the intensive plan, pursued on a compara- 

 tively small plat of ground, will also receive due atten- 



