114 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



and the bird becomes boisterous and quarrelsome, the flesh 

 becomes dry and tough and is not fit for roasting. 



General and special supplies. From July, when the earliest 

 farm chickens are large enough for roasting, until about the first 

 of February, when the last of the late-hatched farm chickens 

 disappear from the markets, there are nearly always enough very 

 good roasting chickens in the general market receipts to supply 

 the demand for that class and grade of poultry. Then for four or 

 five months there are no fresh roasting chickens on the market 



FIG. in. Massachusetts soft-roaster plant 



except those grown especially for this trade. This line of poul- 

 try culture was developed first near Philadelphia, in southern 

 New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, about forty years ago. 

 The chickens were hatched with hens in the autumn and early 

 winter, each grower having only a few hundred. They were 

 sold not only in Philadelphia but in New York and Boston, and 

 in smaller Eastern cities where there was a demand for them. 

 They were, and still are, commonly known as Philadelphia 

 chickens. 



Large roaster plants. After incubators came into common 

 use, the production of Philadelphia chickens increased, but a 

 more remarkable development of that line of production took 

 place in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, just about the time 



