258 PO UL TR T- CRAF1. 



APPENDIX. 



A Little General Information Concerning the Poultry and Allied Industries. 



In the first edition of this work, published the year before the last census (1900), the 

 writer gave some of the figures of estimates of values of poultry products at the time of 

 the preceding census, and offered a few estimates of probable figures of the census of 

 1900. On the supposition that the rate of increase in poultry products kept pace with 

 the rate of increase of population the $er capita production remaining constant it 

 appeared that the census of 1900 would show poultry products to the value of $350,000,- 

 ooo. As, however, the decade from 1890 to 1900 witnessed a most remarkable and wide- 

 spread development of interest in poultry culture, it was assumed that there had probably 

 been a greater increase in production, and this statement was made: "It need surprise 

 no one if the coming census shows an annual production of eggs and poultry approach- 

 ing $400,000,000 in value." 



When the census figures appeared the amount was actually nearly ten millions less than 

 in 1890. No one at all conversant with the facts in regard to the production of poultry 

 could come to any other conclusions than that either the census of 1890 or that of 1900, 

 or both, were so far wrong as to be utterly unreliable, and that as exact statistics their 

 figures were probably without value. Only on the supposition that the errors of enumer- 

 ation probably had like results in all places, was it possible to imagine that the work of 

 enumerating the fowls of the country and collecting statistics of the value of their 

 produce served any useful purpose. Assuming that the errors were the same and had 

 practically the same effects everywhere, the figures are useful as data for comparisons of 

 the relative production in the various states and territories, but as exact information they 

 are of no value whatever. They merely indicate that the total value of the poultry prod- 

 ucts of the country is enormous, while their unreliability furnishes a striking illustration 

 of the lack of information among poultry keepers on matters of vital importance to them 

 and of the failure of the census bureau to adequately provide for the collecting of statis- 

 tics regarded as of great importance. 



In the opinion of the writer the census of 1890 was probably more accurate than that of 

 1900. This opinion is based on the fact that numerous local or state enumerations 

 between 1890 and 1900 seemed to confirm the 1890 estimates, while the plan adopted for 

 1900 census was very faulty, and did not provide for anything like a full enumeration of 

 poultry stocks. The figures correct or not are so large that the mind fails to get any 

 adequate conception of what they represent, but it is possible to put them in a light that 

 will give the reader some idea of the volume of the produce of the domestic fowls of the 

 country, and also enable him to form an independent opinion as to the accuracy of the 

 census figures. 



There are some five and three-quarter millions of farms in the United States, and on 

 nearly all of these fowls are kept. A farm where there is not a flock of fowls sufficient 

 to provide eggs and poultry for home consumption is a rarity, and on the average farm 



