BROILERS AND ROASTERS. 9 



have been established, many of them on a large scale and 

 with practically unlimited capital to back them. The total 

 sum sunk in such investments in the last fifteen years is 

 enormous, but there is not, so far as the writer is able to 

 learn, today existing anywhere a single successful 

 exclusive broiler plant. It is necessary to emphasize 

 this fact, because through statements in old books and 

 papers as well as through sensational stories which owners 

 of new plants and not over-well informed or over-scru- 

 pulous writers and publishers from time to time give out, 

 many people are deceived into investing capital in an 

 undertaking which as an exclusive specialty cannot by any 

 possibility prove profitable under present conditions of 

 demand and supply. 



A brief statement of the reasons for this will enable the 

 reader to guard against being misled by stories of great 

 success with broilers as an exclusive specialty. 



Making a specialty of broilers will give a " living 

 profit," that is, a profit which gives the grower compen- 

 sation appropriate to the amount of the permanent invest- 

 ment and to his skill and labor, only for those broilers sold 

 during the period of high prices, and the profits for broil- 

 ers marketable during this period are not great enough to 

 offset low profits at other times. 



The great bulk of the broilers which come to market 

 come from the general farms and from egg farms, and 

 from the time these begin to be received in quantity until 

 toward the end of the summer the market is amply sup- 

 plied from these sources. Indeed they would during 

 several months be a drug on the market were not the sit- 

 uation relieved by putting thousands of tons of the best 

 into cold storage to be held until arrivals of fresh stock 



