CHAPTER XXXV 

 POULTRY 



554. Importance of the poultry industry. The value of the 

 poultry and eggs produced in the United States annually is 

 about $750,000,000, or about the same as the combined value 

 of the gold, silver, iron, and coal mined annually in the United 

 States. The value of the poultry and eggs sold from farms, 

 not including that raised in the towns and villages and sold, is 

 $256,000,000. The average farm income from poultry products 

 in the United States in 1913 was $92.39 for each farm. In 

 the same year the value of poultry raised on farms was 16.9 per 

 cent of the value of all farm-animal products. 



555. Poultry is chiefly chickens. Ninety-five per cent of all 

 the poultry in the United States is chickens; 1.5 per cent is 

 geese ; I per cent is turkeys ; less than I per cent is ducks ; 

 guineas, pigeons, pheasants, and other domestic birds make up 

 the remaining 1.5 per cent. 



The popularity of the chicken is due to the fact that it fur- 

 nishes a convenient source of fresh meat on the farm and is 

 usually a much better egg producer than other species of poultry. 



556. The primary poultry product. Eggs furnish two thirds 

 of the farm income from poultry, and meat and feathers the 

 other third. The reason for this probably lies in the fact that 

 eggs are highly digestible and generally desired as a food. The 

 eggs of ducks, geese, and guineas are sometimes sold for food, 

 but the number is so small when compared with hens' eggs as 



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