MARKETING 



which are so shipped are not as crowded and for that rea- 

 son go through in a little better shape. 



In the live poultry transportation cars an attendant 

 accompanies each car. It is the duty of this man to feed 

 and water the birds, to see that the car goes through as 

 promptly as possible, and that the birds are weighed cor- 

 rectly when they are unloaded. The cars are provided 

 with troughs for each coop and in this is fed a sloppy 

 mixture of crushed corn and water. When the weather 

 is cool, as it usually is at this time of the year, no other 

 water is given to the turkeys. About 12 hours before 

 the train is due to arrive at Jersey City the turkeys are 

 given all the whole corn that they will eat with the object 

 of cutting down the shrinkage as much as possible. How- 

 ever, during the journey the turkeys are much disturbed 

 and do not eat very well so that their shrinkage is high. 



Shrinkage on a car of live turkeys will run as a rule 

 from 12 to i$% as compared with the shrinkage on a car 

 of chickens under the same conditions which runs from 

 9 to 10%. A few of the turkeys die during the trip or 

 are accidentally killed. However, the loss from this 

 source is not large, probably not amounting to more than 

 i%. The cost of shipping live turkeys from Tennessee 

 to New York City will run better than 5 cents a pound. 

 In addition to this cost of shipment 5% commission must 

 be deducted for handling the turkeys on the market. 



When the cars of live turkeys arrive at the railroad 

 terminal in Jersey City the turkeys are unloaded and 

 weighed as soon as possible. The commission firm to 



121 



