108 



THE LEGHORNS 



lected brands of Danish eggs weighing 28 4-5 ounces to 

 the dozen, while the average weight of first class Leghorn 

 eggs in this country will run 24 ounces to the dozen, 

 and it is the 2 ounce white egg that seems to be most 

 popular and profitable, and in this respect the white egg 

 is King and the Leghorn hen is Queen. 



New York Hotels Favor White Eggs 

 The great hostelries of New York were not slow 

 to realize the value of white shelled eggs for the breakfast 

 table, and to them many Leghorn breeders owe their start 

 and success as commercial egg farmers. Knapp Broth- 

 ers, whose beautiful White Leghorns started the poul- 

 try fancy twenty years ago with their winnings at Amer- 

 ica's leading shows, were among the first poultry raisers 

 in the Empire state to engage in the production of White 

 Leghorn eggs for the New York hotel trade, although 

 James Forsyth, a well known Leghorn and Houdan 

 breeder in those days, also shipped eggs from his farm 

 at Owego to the Gilsey House, the Knapps sending their 

 product to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, if we are not mis- 

 taken. The prices for strictly choice Leghorn eggs at 

 that period ranged from 25 cents to 45 cents a dozen in 

 case lots. 



Other hotels followed suit and began to make con- 

 tracts with the Leghorn breeders in New Jersey and 

 New York for regular supplies of white eggs, but at 

 the old Ashland House, the headquarters of the poultry- 

 men in New York for many years, Mine Host, Brock- 

 way, stood pat with his famous brown eggs (and excellent 

 eggs they were), the best Mr. Brockway could buy from 

 New England egg farms. 



California Egg Farms 



But New York is not alone in the white egg field. 

 The demand for fresh white shelled eggs is becoming 

 general in all parts of the country, the Pacific Coast being 

 especially partial to them, the Petaluma district in 

 California being one great white egg market, in fact 

 California is destined to be the greatest Leghorn country 



of the future, to judge by the reports received from dis- 

 interested observers of the commercial egg farm indus- 

 try in that state. 



John F. Ritz, a successful poultry breeder and judge 

 of Pennsylvania, visited the Pacific Coast last winter and 

 furnished us with some interesting data relating to Leg- 

 horns in that country. Mr. Ritz writes: 



"As to Leghorns, California is the Leghorn state and 

 it is safe to say that 75 per cent of the poultiy in that 

 state are Leghorns. In or about Petaluma 98 per cent 

 are Leghorns, and Petaluma is the greatest chicken city in 

 the L'nited States, in fact there is no other business but 

 chickens and poultry supplies in the whole town of 8,000 

 inhabitants and I believe there are three million Leghorns 

 within a radius of 20 miles of Petaluma. As to figures 

 and prices, will say they sell their old hens by the dozen, 

 they bring from $5.00 to $6.00 per dozen, and pullets 

 $9.00 to $10.00. Eggs bring much more than we get in 

 the East. On November 20th eggs were bringing in " 

 Petaluma 54 cents cash and 56 cents on time. I wanted 

 to know what time was and was informed that if the 

 poultrymen wait 14 days for the money they get 56 cents, 

 there is no commission or express of¥ those prices, but 

 cash for all one brings in, and while I was walking about 

 the town I saw not less than a car load of eggs come 

 in on wagons, some had one crate, others two and so on, 

 many of them bring eggs in every day, the same as we do 

 here with milk, ana you would very seldom see a wagon 

 m the town unless it had eggs, chickens, feed or incu- 

 bators on it." 



Poultry Census of Hayward, California 



J. W. Caldwell. Secretary of the Hayward Poultry 

 Producers' Association, Inc., in response to our letter 

 asking for data relating to the commercial Leghorn 

 farms in his section, reports the following interesting 

 figures relative to the poultry industry: 



Number of poultry ranches 167 



Hens carried 63.920 



Hens prospective for 1912 98,765 



"Japanese have some 1,550 hens. The poultry indus- 

 try of Hayward and vicinity is of recent date and is 

 growing by leaps and bounds. We have a very pro- 

 gressive poultry association for the purpose of buying 

 feed, etc. and the disposing of eggs and poultry." 



View on Spring Water Poultry Farm, Stockton, N. J., showing brooder house and runs, and to the left the in- 

 cubator cellar with laying house above. S. C. White Leghorns are bred on this plant. A glimpse of the 

 residence o£ Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Eppele, props.. Is also shown. After visiting nearly fifty poultry farms in America 

 during the fall of 1911. Dr. Schulke, of Trittau, near Hamburg, Germany, remarked: "In a way this plant did 

 not look to me like a poultry farm; it reminded me more of a German Military Station, where everything has Its 

 place and everything is in its place." 



