FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 157 



Marketing Through Common Trade Channels. 



Through the country at large poultry products after they leave the producer pass through 

 several hands before reaching the consumer. In many places collectors send wagons all over 

 the country surrounding their headquarters. In other places country merchants receive poultry 

 and eggs direct from farmers, generally in exchange for goods, and forward them to buyers 

 at central points. From these they go to commission houses in the large cities, or to the pack- 

 ing concerns that handle poultry and eggs, and by these are distributed to jobbers and retailers, 

 an article frequently passing through four or five or more hands before reaching the con- 

 sumer. 



Now because each party who handles the article has to be paid for his services, it does not 

 follow that the producer will save by dispensing with those services. He will not unless he 

 can perform them himself at less cost. This he may do in special cases, but usually it is more 

 satisfactory to sell through the general channels, and it is always the better way unless one is 

 sure he has a better arrangement and with reliable parties. 



The poultry keeper whose products pass through numerous hands before they reach the 

 consumer, and who perhaps receives not more than half of the retail price, is apt to fee] that 

 too large a proportion of the price goes to those who have labored least. Such a view of the 

 matter is superficial. I would not dissuade anyone from attempting to get all he can out of his 

 produce, but I do believe that the mistaken feeling that middlemen get more than their fail- 

 share of the profits on poultry tends to keep down the production of poultry, and I want to 

 contribute what I can to the removal of that feeling. Nearly always the poultry keeper profits 

 most by giving his attention principally to production, and putting out his produce through the 

 best channels of trade that reach him, whether these take it through many or few hands. 



Holding Produce for High Prices. 



Here we have another matter in which producers, endeavoring to get as much as possible out 

 of their product, may make a mistake. 



With the perfecting of modern methods of cold storage, the market for limed and otherwise 

 preserved eggs has quite disappeared. There is practically no market for eggs held in pro- 

 ducers' hands at prices that will make it worth while to hold them. Whatever may be said of 

 the profitableness of preserving eggs for home use during the period of least production, to hold 

 them to sell at that time is so seldom profitable that the poultryman is wisest who dismisses it 

 from his thoughts, and markets his eggs fresh at the best going prices they will command. 



Poultry should be marketed when ready for the use for which it is intended. Broilers and 

 roasters should go at the weights, (and this means weight in good condition), at which they 

 will bring the best prices, and the wise poultryman who is looking for trade in table poultry 

 hatches his chickens as nearly as possible to have them ready when they will bring most money. 

 They may be held a little while, or worked off a little early, according to condition and prices. 

 One does not have to be exact to a day and an ounce; but to sell to best advantage, any lot of 

 chickens has to go about the time it is fit. If held longer it is fed without profit, and may go 

 back and be held at a loss. A fuller consideration of the points that arise in this connection 

 must wait for future lessons on broilers and roasters. 



Selling Poultry Alive. 



When sold to a special class of trade, poultry is usually dressed by the producer or collector. 

 When sold to the general trade, it is dressed or sold alive, according to circumstances, the prin- 

 cipal determining matters being the custom in the vicinity, and the grower's judgment as to 

 which way will give him best returns. Some markets want nearly all live poultry ; some nearly 

 all dressed. St. Louis belongs to the former class; Boston has been a conspicuous dressed poul- 

 try market, taking comparatively little live poultry, but conditions are changing somewhat, 

 and a great deal of poultry is coming here alive now, and many growers tell me the returns on 

 live poultry are close enough to the returns on dressed to make it a matter of indifference so 

 far as profit is concerned, which way they ship. This has not long been so. Until quite 

 recently a grower who sold good poultry alive for this market generally sacrificed a good part 

 of his profit. 



