THE POULTRY INDUSTRY 



THE EGG AND POULTRY SITUATION IN CANADA 



W. A. BROWN, Live Stock Branch, Ottawa. 



The Egg and Poultry situation in Canada might be summed up in the form of a 

 simple equation. On the one side the fact that Great Britain requires all the surplus 

 eggs and poultry Canada can produce; on the other, the fact that, although Canada 

 has all the facilities for the production of a quantity far in excess of her own requirements, 

 the present magnitude of the industry is but a mere fraction of what it might be if 

 advantage were taken of our present opportunities. 



According to the last census, there were almost as many poultry in the state 

 of Iowa, as in the whole of the Dominion of Canada. There is no reason why this 

 record cannot be equalled and even excelled by each or all of the three great Western 

 Provinces, Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, to say nothing of the greatly increased 

 production possible in Eastern Canada. 



In the Maritime Provinces, Prince Edward Island is the only province that is 

 anywhere near doing its duty in the production of eggs and poultry. Still, with the 

 relatively high prices prevailing, there is no reason why it could not do more. Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick both import eggs in quantities, the cities of St. John and 

 Halifax alone securing 50% and 60% respectively of their supplies from Prince Edward 

 Island. It is said that the main reason for this limited production is the lack of 

 home grown grain. If so, the remedy is simple. 



The Province of Quebec imports eggs from both east and west. The poultry 

 industry is well developed in the eastern townships, but the whole agricultural region 

 east, west, and south from the city of Quebec fails to supply sufficient eggs for the 

 requirements of that market. 



The Province of Ontario is the banner province in the Dominion insofar as the 

 production of eggs and poultry is concerned. According to the last census, over 

 13,000,000 of the 29,000,000 head of poultry in Canada were found in Ontario, and of the 

 123,000,000 dozen eggs produced, Ontario produced 58,888,614 dozen. 



Ordinarily, a large part of Ontario's surplus goes to supply Montreal and the chief 

 consuming centres of the Province of Quebec. During the past year, however, with 

 increasing production elsewhere, a large part of this surplus has been shipped to Great 

 Britain. 



The poultry industry in the Western Provinces is still in its infancy. According 

 to the last census the total poultry population of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta 

 was only 8,012,634, as against 13,414,318 head in the province of Ontario. This number, 

 however, represented an increase over the number in 1900 of nearly 400%.. and in the 

 year 1915, for the first time in the history of the Dominion, fresh-gathered eggs in car 

 lots were shipped from the Western to the Eastern Provinces of the Dominion. 



The Western Provinces offer great possibilities for the further development of the 

 poultry industry. It has been amply demonstrated that not only is high summer egg 

 production possible, but if properly housed, tended, and cared for, even the more tender 

 varieties of poultry give profitable returns in the winter season. The Western Provinces, 

 too, have an asset in the remarkable effect that the long summer days and the wealth of 

 vegetable and insect life have upon the early maturity of the stock. 



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