NATURE AND USES OF POULTRY 9 



their differences of habit often enable the poultryman to handle 

 flocks of several kinds much more profitably than he could keep 

 an equal number of any one kind, and their difference in products 

 gives a greater variety of articles, for use or sale. 



The use of poultry flesh as food is governed by its convenience, 

 quality, and cheapness. 



Convenience. While, compared among themselves, the common 

 birds of the poultry group show considerable diversity in size, com- 

 pared with other domestic creatures generally used for food they 

 are all small. Their size is such that at any season and in any 

 climate an ordinary family can use a carcass while fresh. Their 

 conformation is such that the killing and dressing of poultry are 

 comparatively easy and cleanly processes, often performed by 

 women, and even by quite young children. 



Quality. The flesh of poultry, compared with that of mammals 

 grown for food purposes in domestication, is finer grained and, 

 when in proper condition, more tender. It is at the same time easily 

 digested and highly nutritious. The flesh of the more common kinds 

 of strictly land birds (fowls and turkeys) is regarded as a necessity 

 for invalids and persons of weak digestion, and is the most popular 

 luxury in the meat line. The flesh of ducks and geese, being more 

 oily and of stronger flavor, is not so freely used except by those races 

 which do not eat pork, but all kinds of poultry meat are commonly 

 rated as greater delicacies than meat of other domestic creatures. 



Cheapness. The cost of poultry is estimated differently by the 

 producer consuming a home product and the consumer buying 

 what he uses. For the grower, as a rule, poultry is actually cheap 

 meat. The agricultural service of the birds and their feeding 

 largely on stuffs that would otherwise go to waste make the cost 

 of production on farms small. Even where they are grown at 

 greater expense, the cost is usually low enough to make it as eco- 

 nomical for the grower to use poultry freely as to buy other meat 

 of like quality. It is this cheapness and convenience, as already 

 noted, that determine the use in America of enormous quantities 

 of poultry by producers and bring about the almost universal desire 

 to grow poultry wherever there is opportunity to do so. 



For the buyer, poultry is generally cheap as compared with other 

 meats which may be used to supplement the beef, mutton, and pork 



