172 BIGGI<K POULTRY BOOK. 



200 "rooster" eggs, and when they hatched there 

 was but one pullet in the lot, and he is sure the egg 

 producing it was a fraud. He says the pullet eggs are 

 " smooth on the ends, while the rooster eggs have a 

 zigzag mark or quirl on one end." 



I have been gathering statistics about the present 

 condition of the poultry business, and when one gets 

 down to black-and-white facts, it is certainly astonish- 

 ing. Reports say that fully 250,000,000 chickens, not 

 counting turkeys, ducks and geese, are consumed as 

 food each year, and I have it on the authority of the 

 Secretary of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture that our hens lay about 1,666,000,000 dozens 

 of eggs a year, bringing in enough money to pay the 

 interest on the national debt. 



Again I read that the poultry and egg crops com- 

 prise 16.3 per cent of the total animal products of this 

 country, and that the eggs bring annually $225,000,000 

 and the poultry crop about $150,000,000. 



Again, there are about a dozen agricultural col- 

 leges that teach poultry husbandry; there are fifty 

 poultry papers, and an endless number of poultry 

 books. There are probably more poultry writers than 

 there are for all the other branches cf live stock com- 

 bined. Then a look at the incubator business is sur- 

 prising. It is estimated that the average yearly out- 

 put of machines will run up to 24,000. 



Surely the poultry business can see great promise 

 in the future I 



