CHAPTER IX 



MARKETING POULTRY PRODUCTS. 



At least ninety per cent of the farmers keep poultry upon their 

 farms, and most of them admit that their flocks yield them a reason- 

 able profit, although any intelligent observer has but to spend a short 

 time in the market of our cities to learn that poor methods of pre- 

 paring and marketing poultry and eggs prevent the producer from 

 receiving much greater returns than he is receiving at the present 

 time. We know it to be a fact, admitted by all, that high grade goods 

 practically sell themselves, and if we are to get our poultry business 

 upon the high plane it should be, we must give due consideration to 

 the question of marketing. We must not only turn out a superior 

 grade of goods, but it must be marketed in the most careful manner. 



WHERE TO SELL. 



Our poultry products are concentrated and valuable, and not ex- 

 tremely perishable. At some seasons of the year a case of eggs is al- 

 most as valuable as a ton of hay, and you can drive to tow r n with a case 

 of eggs in the bed of your buggy and experience no inconvenience, 

 but to market a ton of hay it takes a two-horse team and wagon to 

 transport your product. Poultry and eggs are becoming more and 

 more valuable, and there is a constantly increasing demand. If you 

 are growing strawberries and other small fruit, they must be marketed 

 in a reasonable length of time or else they will perish upon your 

 hands, and the same is true with milk, butter and other dairy prod- 

 ucts; yet poultry and eggs can be held for a much longer period of 

 time without serious loss, than can any of those things mentioned. 

 Taking these things into consideration, and with our present improved 

 means of transportation, it is not impossible for the poultryman to 

 place his goods in the best markets of the United States without 

 greatly increased expense. Many railroads have direct refrigerator 

 lines to St. Louis, Chicago and New York. The poultryman usually 

 disposes of his products by one or more of the following methods : 



First. Selling direct to the consumer. 



Second. Selling direct to the retailer. 



Third. Shipping to commission merchants for sale upon the open 

 market. 



Fourth. Selling to the local poultry dealer, who in turn ships to 

 the packing and cold storage companies. Selling to the consumer, 

 and thus eliminating the charges and commissions of the middleman, 

 is perhaps the best plan if you are so situated so this can be done to 

 advantage. We cannot dispense with the cold storage and packing 

 companies for the reason that during the period of heaviest produc- 

 tion, vast numbers of eggs are preserved in this manner until the sea- 

 son of scant supply. This acts as a balance wheel and absorbs all 

 surplus at a fair price. I can remember when a boy, upon the farm, 



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