312 POULTRY BREEDING 
year, he is rarely able to give an intelligent estimate of 
the number of eggs produced on his farm. Secretary of 
Agriculture Wilson has estimated that the value of the 
eggs and poultry produced in this country in a year is 
about that of wheat or hay, roughly $625,000,000, and 
these figures are thought to be well within the facts by 
those who keep in touch with the poultry business, 
Secretary Coburn of the Kansas State Board of Agri- 
culture is probably able to give as close a guess at the 
egg production of his state as any one in a similar posi- 
tion in any other state and he gives the figures for Kan- 
sas for five years as follows: 
1908: cand Gouna aenee Rae See, GF. Kaduduauelt BR $6,498,856 
MOOS s syetes ois si, oxen Esainis CORRE I BOER an ae en 7,551,871 
W905: secre: sags ages Re SERREEA Sieh ee eae emee) ates 8,541,153 
LQOG Sinise x wreepinait g ac yetginging: oadag nr deepens agak Caper Nee 9,085,896 
MQOE sccsitisah arctnin aussie ssehepepcre ae SW nace oka ama 10,800,082 
This shows an increase in five years of $3,801,226 or 
more than 50 per cent. If other states have made similar 
increases, and there is reason to think they have, the fig- 
ures given by Secretary Wilson are exceedingly conser- 
vative. In spite of this rapid increase in production the 
supply has not kept pace with the demand, as is shown 
by the constant rise in prices. The farm price of eggs 
in 1899 was 11.15 cents per dozen, as averaged in the 
United States; in 1903 it was 12.37 cents; in 1904, 17.2 
cents; in 1905, 18.7 cents; in 1906, 17 cents; in 1907, the 
last year for which statistics are available, it was 18.2 
cents. The units of production are so small that we fail 
to realize the enormous aggregate value of poultry 
products. 
The most important source of revenue in the poultry 
industry is the production of eges. It has been estimated 
