BROILER RAISING 



377 



or excessively fat birds being undesirable. A large mass of solid 

 fat protruding from the lower posterior part of the abdomen 

 makes the bird unsuitable for the best trade. 



Broiler raising, or the growing and marketing of young chickens, 

 is carried on everywhere in the United States. No article of food 

 is of such tender, delicious quality and so highly esteemed by every- 

 one as the spring chicken. The great majority of broilers are 

 produced in the spring of the year, and are a by-product from 

 hatching pullets for winter layers. These broilers are produced 

 at a time of the year when there is a big supply and when produc- 

 tion cost is low. At this time the large broiler is in general demand, 



Fig. 174. — A flock of fowls ready for market. 



and the price is such that people of all degrees of wealth can eat 

 them. The winter broiler business is an effort to raise young 

 chickens under entirely artificial conditions and place them on 

 the market in the late winter and early spring, which is a season 

 when there is little of this type of product available. The produc- 

 tion of winter broilers must of necessity be more costly than the 

 production of the same product later in the spring. The greatest 

 demand for broilers is in the large cities, in the vicinity of health 

 resorts, and during the last few years an immense demand has 

 been built up for them along the Atlantic seaboard. The cities 

 of New York and Philadelphia constitute the two heaviest points 

 of distribution. The Philadelphia broiler is a term which is com- 

 mon in the East, but is really a misnomer, because those chickens 

 are produced in New Jersey, and are simply sent into Philadelphia 

 for marketing. New Jersey has always held the centre of the 

 stage as a broiler-producing state. Some years ago a boom was 

 started, but, owing to the fact that it was not built upon sound 



